Child of Hecate
by SuperShadowhuntr95
Summary: When Circle Daybreak members go to meet with the Council of Witches at the Empire State building, they meet some interesting company there and are sent on a quest to help save the world.
1. The Empire State Building

Child of Hecate:

A Percy Jackson, Night World Crossover

Chapter 1:

The Empire State Building

~Keller~

"Time, Nissa!" I bellowed from the back of the car.

"10:45, Boss!" the vampire in the front answered me, swerving to just narrowly miss a pedestrian. "We have fifteen minutes to get to the Empire State building, go to the top floor, and meet the witches!"

Iliana – sandwiched in the back of the car between Galen and I – whimpered. "I don't see what it is I have to do _now_. I'm the Wild Power – OK. I'm the Witch Child – OK. That's all been said. Why can't I just go _home_?"

"We have to meet with the Council of the Witches!" Winnie answered from the passenger seat. "The meeting is at the top floor of the Empire State building – you can't get there without a very special key!"

I swallowed – hard. I knew we had to obtain the key from the concierge to go to the top floor – but I also knew that the Night World wasn't the only secret society that had a key to the dimensions at the top floor of the Empire State building. I'd heard of people that were twenty feet tall that lived at the top floor – and I also knew that sometimes their children went to visit them. But even being Raksha Keller – now the second-most important shape-shifter in the Night World – didn't bring me the knowledge of what dimensions floated in the air suspended above the building. I shut my eyes for a second and took a few deep breaths.

Galen, noticing the furrowing of my brow, reached in front of Iliana to place a hand on top of mine. "Keller? Are you OK?"

I opened my eyes and grabbed Galen's hand, squeezing for the strength and comfort needed to help keep me going. Looking over at his paranoid face, I smiled slightly. "I'm fine. Just got a lot of things on my mind."

Galen gave my hand another squeeze and attempted to fully return my smile just as Nissa skidded around a corner. The sudden, sharp turn caused those of us in the back seat to be flung against Galen's door. Iliana whimpered.

"Sorry, Boss!" Nissa answered – as level-headed as ever. "Try not to do it again!"

As the three of us in the back readjusted ourselves in our seats, I stifled a laugh. Nissa was our getaway girl – if she never tried to do that again, then something would've been seriously wrong with her.

The car screeched to a stop between two taxis. Looking out the window, I came face-to-face with the doors leading into the Empire State building. That same knot that had been constricting inside my stomach for the past few weeks tightened, but I made my best attempt to keep a poker face as we stepped out of the car.

But Galen noticed. Walking next to me, he laced his fingers through mine and squeezed tight. "Something's wrong, Keller. You can't hide everything from me. I'm your soulmate – I can tell when you're worried. It just sucks not being able to figure out _why_ you're worried." He stopped talking and resorted to the soulmate-style communication in my head. _Do you want to talk about it?_

I attempted a smile, but he looked only half-believing that my smile was genuine. Galen had this way of softening me on the inside – when I was with him, I let down my tough-girl exterior. _Not right now,_ I answered, returning his hand squeeze with another of my own. _I don't want anyone to worry. It's just one of my crazy panther instincts – I honestly don't think there'll be anything to worry about. I'm just paranoid, is all._

He returned my attempted smile and held up my hand, kissing it lightly – sending shivers throughout my body at the same time. I may have been in human form, but kisses from Galen still sent my nerves reeling. Noticing my reaction, he laughed quietly. "That's the Keller I know," he whispered.

The five of us entered the building, and Winnie led us to the back wall – back toward the concierge desk. It was a different concierge than the last time Nissa and I had brought Winnie here, and I was unsure if this was the Night World concierge or the twenty-foot-tall-people concierge.

"Unity," Winnie greeted the man behind the desk with a smile.

He looked up at her from the desktop computer he was typing on and raised an eyebrow at her – not returning her smile. My pounding heart leapt into my throat. "Excuse me?" His eyes swept over all of us, but they rested on and widened at a single person – Iliana. "Oh!" The concierge jumped, causing his wireless mouse to fly up into the air. "Daughter of Hecate – of course, of course! They've been expecting you!" His desk rattled as he yanked a drawer open and reached into it to pull out a key. "Here you go – turn the key to the left to unlock the button. _Kalí__̱ __týchi__̱_!"

Upon hearing the last two words the guard said, I snatched the key out of Iliana's hand. It was gold – expected, all dimension keys here for the elevator were gold – but that wasn't what startled me. What startled me was the black emblazoned omega sign that adorned the handle of the key. I felt the ground drop from beneath my feet, and I must have literally fallen – Galen swooped in and caught me before I hit the tiled floor.

"Keller!" I heard Galen call my name, and I could see his face clearly, but he sounded far away. "Keller – are you _sure_ you're OK?"

I straightened up and shook my head to clear it; Galen was still holding me. "I'm fine," I lied, reluctantly detaching myself from Galen's strong hands. "Here, Iliana." I shoved the key at her. "Come on – we have to get up there to meet the Council before it's too late." She looked at me with both eyebrows hiked up to her hairline, but I averted her gaze. I began walking toward the elevator, and Galen fell into step beside me. He could sense my tension – I knew – but he didn't try to grab my hand.

When we entered the elevator, Iliana slid the key into the keyhole and waited. Rather than a button appearing, a single golden light blossomed from the smooth bronze inside of the elevator, and one symbol was visible against the harsh light: a black omega.

The elevator lurched upward, sending us sprawling to the floor. I fell backwards on top of Galen, and he wrapped his arms around me as the elevator gained speed.

"_WHAT'S HAPPENING?_" Iliana screamed against the roar of the elevator.

"_I DON'T KNOW!_" Winnie answered, her voice screeching with sudden, extreme worry. "_THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN LAST TIME!_"

Rather than yelling anything in reply, I shut my eyes. I never cried, but a single tear trickled down my face and fell onto Galen's. When he noticed, he turned my face towards his – my eyes now open.

_Keller – _

The elevator slammed to a stop, cutting off Galen. When we were certain that the elevator wasn't going to move anymore, we stood up.

"Boss," Nissa asked cautiously, running her fingers through her short mink-colored hair to smooth any disarray, "what just happened?"

I didn't answer Nissa right away. Instead, I wiped away the tear stain and turned my attention to the button pad on the side of the elevator. The golden light that had been shining earlier was gone, but the black omega was still printed on the bronze of the elevator. I reached out and touched it – instinctively – before jerking my hand back and cursing under my breath. The omega was blazing hot to the touch – almost as if the golden light had burned it onto the surface of the bronze. "Nissa," I sighed, turning to face the other girl, "I think we need to find that out."

With a sharp _ding!_ the elevator doors slid open.


	2. Interesting Company

Chapter 2:

Interesting Company

~Annabeth~

I turned to face my mother, feeling the eyes of all the other Olympians on my back. My mother met my gray gaze with her own, and she sighed before she began speaking. "Annabeth, Percy, Grover – you three are being sent on yet another quest."

"Then why'd you have to bring us here to tell us _that_?" I growled. My mother really wasn't my favorite person right now – taking me right out of a date I'd been on with Percy to bring us here was _not_ OK with me at the moment. "Why couldn't you've told us at camp? That is what campfires are for, you know."

Athena smiled sadly and regarded me thoughtfully. "I know, dear." Her gaze turned bitter, and she narrowed her eyes as she glanced at Aphrodite. "_Someone_ told me that exact same thing – but that _someone_ obviously doesn't understand the seriousness of this situation!"

Aphrodite threw her hands into the air, exasperated. "Well, excuse me! They were on a date! It obviously could've waited until later, Athena –"

"Silence!" a voice boomed through the hall, and everyone turned to look at Zeus where he sat in his throne. Today, he wore a pinstriped suit and a cobalt blue tie and, well, looked like an abnormally buff and tall gangster from the '20s. "Honestly, you two and your bickering . . ." He turned to face Percy, Grover, and I. "Anyway, here's the idea behind your quest. Hecate's twin torches have been stolen, and we need you to find out who took them and return them."

"Oh, great," Grover muttered under his breath. "Find two flaming torches. What's the deadline this time? Halloween?"

"Precisely," Zeus answered, standing and striding forward. "The torches are aids to her power. All Hallows Eve is the day when her magic is at the strongest – and it's also the day when the barriers between the spirit world and the mortal world are at their thinnest. She needs the torches to control all the rogue spirits from entering the mortal world."

"Not to argue, Zeus," Percy suddenly addressed the god, stepping forward, "but what do the three of us know about Hecate? Her cabin was just recently added to Camp Half-Blood, so why don't you ask some of her children to do this? And Halloween is only two weeks away. How will we learn enough about Hecate to find her torches in two weeks?"

Zeus glanced at the clock centered in the floor of the circular hall: 10:56. He turned his attention toward the double doors leading into the hall – they were wide open, but I couldn't tell what exactly Zeus was watching for. "Four minutes," he muttered under his breath. "Four minutes is all we have left." Without warning, he stomped over to Ares and glared at the motorcycle-clad god. "I thought you said your daughter would be here by now!"

Ares shook his head and removed his sunglasses, revealing eye sockets filled with flames. I'd seen him without his shades before – the sight of fire for eyes didn't faze me. "Jeeze, big guy. Be patient. I can't be patient for _that_ little brat –" he quickly turned his head toward Percy and narrowed his eyes "– but I can be patient for _my own daughter_."

I tensed. "Clarisse is coming?" The last time we'd had to do a quest with Clarisse, it hadn't turned out that well. I turned to look daggers at my mother. "I thought you said it was just going to be the _three_ of us – me, Percy, and Grover. You never said _anything_ about Clarisse."

"Dear," Athena began, her expression apologetic, "we're not talking about –"

My mother was interrupted by a low, rumbling growl that split the air. Instinctively, Percy, Grover, and I turned to the double doors. Resting on the top step – their claws extended and teeth bared – were a night black panther and green-eyed golden leopard.

~Keller~

Walking through the streets towards the enormous piece of Greek-style architecture at the peak of an even bigger flight of stairs was the least of our worries. However, when a woman with braided vines for hair approached us, I turned halfway and bared my teeth to growl – and the woman ran screaming in the other direction.

_Keller_, Galen's voice resounded in my head. _Something is wrong – I can feel that much. And you cried a little on the elevator. Are you sure everything is alright?_ He wrapped one arm around my waist as we continued to walk. _You're starting to scare me. You got hurt really bad when we faced that last vampire – _

_I'm fine, Galen_, I snapped, sounding harsher than I intended. When I sensed Galen's hurt, I mentally sighed and apologized. _I'm sorry. I just – there's something _wrong _about this place. I'm not sure what, but I feel like we're not supposed to be here. The concierge at the Empire State building said something to us before we left – in Greek. In _Greek_, Galen! Who speaks Greek anymore unless you live in Greece? What did that even mean?_

"Good luck."

The words came out of nowhere, and all of our eyes turned toward Nissa. "What was that?" I asked her, confused.

Nissa shrugged. "You just asked me what the concierge said in Greek back at the Empire State building. He told us good luck. What for, I'm not entirely sure. All I know is that, despite what you said, Boss, I think we _are_ supposed to be here."

Galen and I shared a worried glance before he drew his arm back and turned to face Nissa. "How did you hear that?" he asked, his voice steeped in suspicion. "Keller didn't say that out loud."

Nissa narrowed her eyes at him and twitched a piece of hair behind her ear. "Yes, she did. I heard her loud and clear."

Winnie's expression was just as puzzled-looking as I'm sure mine was. "Keller didn't say that out loud, Nissa. I would've heard her. I think her and Galen were communicating through their little soulmate-connection-line. How did _you_ hear it, though?"

Nissa turned to glare at Winnie. "Well, maybe _you _just weren't paying attention. Iliana!" At the sound of her name being shouted by Nissa, Iliana spun away from a girl with flowers in her blonde hair to look at us. "You're good at listening to things. Did you hear Keller say that she didn't think we were supposed to be here?"

Iliana put a hand on her hip. "Keller's voice is unmistakable. If she would've said something, _I_ would've heard it. The last thing I heard Keller say was that we needed to get out of the elevator to look around and see where we were."

Nissa suddenly looked as puzzled as the rest of us, but before she could say anything, a single word penetrated the stillness of the air around us. "_SILENCE!_"

"What was that?" Iliana asked, shivering a little from fear.

My panther ears perked up from my long black hair and twitched to better hear where the voice had come from. "It came from that building up there." I pointed to the Parthenon-style building at the top of the stairs.

As we watched, lights churned inside the building. The last time we'd seen anything like that, we were investigating a vampire night club. A low growl sounded off to my right, and I turned my head slightly to see Galen staring at the building, baring his leopard teeth. His eyes were becoming more leopard-like – his pupils were elongating into slits – and his beautiful gold ears with black rosettes peeked out from underneath his golden hair. I turned back to face the building and side-smiled to myself.

_I like the way you think._

Nissa suddenly lunged forward – apparently, she'd heard that thought between Galen and I, too. "Boss, no!"

But it was too late – Galen and I were already changing. Before anyone knew it, Galen and I were sprinting up the steps on all-fours, determined to see what was going on.

_I think you were right, Keller_, Galen told me silently as we raced up the multitude of steps. _I don't think we're supposed to be here. Something's up – and the weird thing is that I think Nissa's a part of it._

I didn't want to say that I agreed with Galen about Nissa, but I couldn't lie to him. _Nissa's a great fighter and vampire_, I began as preamble, _but I have to agree with you on that. She's _never_ been able to hear the thoughts going on between you and I before – so how is it possible that she could do it here?_

_I don't know, but – _suddenly, Galen cut-off his train of thought. _Keller – check this out._

Once I'd joined him at the top of the stairs, I froze. The room we looked into was filled with people – well, it looked like it was filled people. Aside from the two humans and . . . shapeshifter? . . . in the center of the room, the rest of the people were – gulp – twenty feet tall. _Oh, no_, I thought, and I hoped Galen wasn't listening. _These are the people I'd heard about. The ones that shared the top of the building with the Night World._

_Olympus_, Galen whispered in my head, still baring his teeth at the giants.

_What?_

_Olympus, Keller_, Galen explained. _You know that I'm descended from the dragons. Well, they say that the idea of dragons arose from a Greek myth – and, Keller, all the stories are true._

_Galen!_ I was beside myself. I bared my teeth and narrowed my eyes, letting a really loud growl loose from my throat. _Galen, what are you talking about?_

_I'm talking, Keller, about the Greek myths. _He turned his head toward me and stared into my cool grey eyes with his jewel-like green ones. _Keller – we've just entered Olympus. The home of the Greek gods._


	3. Painful Recognition

Chapter 3:

Painful Recognition

~Annabeth~

OK, I'd seen – and fought – some pretty wacko monsters in my time as a demigod. I'd dealt with _anemoi thuelai_, Medusa, hydras, Dr. Thorn, Atlas – but no part of my training had _ever_ prepared me for this. "Percy!" I yelled, unsheathing my dagger and charging toward the monsters.

"On it!" Percy answered from behind me. Once he caught up with me, I noticed that Riptide was fully operational, the celestial bronze blade glinting in the lights of the hall. Together, Percy and I charged forward to meet these beasts head-on.

Until the pixie-looking girl with curly strawberry blonde hair stepped up, that is.

"Stop!" she screamed, and I could almost hear the force of her power through her words. Percy and I instantly froze in our tracks – unable to move, but still able to speak and observe what was going on. With one hand still pointing towards Percy and me, the girl walked over to the panther and the leopard and . . . started talking to them! "Keller, Galen – you might want to be in half-and-half form for this." The panther growled, and the girl placed a hand on the panther's back and . . . started petting it! OK – what Twilight Zone did I just step into? "Now, Keller – I know you want to be able to make a quick getaway – but it doesn't always work like that! You need to verbalize and use your words – we have no idea what we've gotten ourselves into!"

The leopard – Galen, by process of elimination – nudged the panther – er, Keller. She nudged the leopard back, and then did the closest thing I'd ever seen to a panther rolling its eyes. In a sudden flash of energy – much like a god or goddess when they reveal their true form – the panther morphed into a girl with long black hair and cool grey eyes, the leopard morphing into a boy with golden hair and jewel-like green eyes. The girl still had claws and black paws for hands, but the boy still had his leopard paws intact as well. Instinctively, I noticed that they both still had cat ears and tails. So _this_ was what the girl had meant by half-and-half form!

"Let us go, monster!" Percy screamed at the blonde girl – er, _other_ blonde girl.

She examined her nails thoughtfully for a moment. "Hmmm, let me see . . ." She paused in her talking to walk towards us and examine us more closely. "Not unless you promise to put your weapons down and act like civilized human beings." The girl spread her arms wide. "All we want to do is talk."

I glared at the girl – I had the strangest feeling that she couldn't be trusted. "You bet you're a-"

"Annabeth," Grover interrupted, galloping over to us. "Just do it! No possible harm could come."

"See?" the girl said, smiling sweetly at Grover. "Listen to the nice shapeshifting goat and promise you'll put down your weapons. Then – and only then – will I unfreeze you."

I groaned, but agreed. After Percy and I had both promised, the girl waved her hand – and we were free. Seeing that we were no longer a danger, the panther girl and leopard boy finished their transformations back into full human form. "Now," I began without preamble, striding forward until I was face-to-face with magic-girl, "I believe you owe us some information. Who are you, where did you come from, and – most importantly – why are you here?"

"All easy questions," the panther girl – Keller – said, stepping forward. "'Who are you, where did you come from, why are you here?' Why, I feel like I should be asking you the same thing. But, just to satisfy you, I'm Keller. This is Galen –" she gestured to leopard boy "– and this is –"

"Winfrith Arlin, witch!" the magic girl said with a bright smile. I hated her at once. "We're from Circle Daybreak. We came here because we were informed that there would be a meeting of the Council of the Witches at the top floor of the Empire State building at eleven, but the concierge gave us the wrong key. So . . . now we're here!"

"Winnie," another voice added to the melee from the doorway, and everyone turned to see a girl with light blonde hair cowering behind a girl with short mink-colored hair. Just by the amount of confidence the mink-haired girl exuded, I could tell instantly that she was the one who had spoken. "You talk too much." With that, this new girl threw the ironwood fighting stick she held in her hand; the weapon spun through the air until it sank into the wall at the opposite end of the hall – just narrowly missing Ares' head.

Ares looked at the spear momentarily in utter shock before doing something no one expected him to do. Without warning, the god of war burst into laughter. "Now that's how it's done!" He stood, removing his shades to once again reveal his fire-ridden eyes. "Nice aim, girl!"

The new girl glared at him, confused. "I'm not sure I know what you mean by that, sir."

A look of shock crossed the god's face, but he burst into laughter again. "Girl doesn't even know her own father! Olympians, Jackson, Chase, Underwood, this here is my – only – vampire daughter: Nissa Johnson."

~Nissa~

The big guy with the biker outfit – he looked _immensely_ familiar – laughed. "Girl doesn't even know her own father! Olympians, Jackson, Chase, Underwood, this here is my – only – vampire daughter: Nissa Johnson."

Inside, I was panicking. How was it that this guy knew me? And what authority did he have to call me his daughter? Although I was a range of emotions on the inside, I fought to maintain the deadly calm I was famous for.

It worked.

"_WHAT?_" Keller bellowed, and I turned a little to look at her just as she spun back to face me. "Do you even know this guy? Nissa, is there some explanation as to why you never brought this _up_?" She was freaking out. I had _never_ seen Keller go crazy like that. Winnie, sure, but not Keller. Like me, the Boss usually kept a pretty level head. Apparently, this was so major that it was freaking out time.

"And, of course, she's not the only one," another voice boomed throughout the hall. I looked up to see a twenty foot tall man in a pinstriped suit rise from his throne and step forward. _Zeus_, something whispered in my head, and I realized that it was the same voice that had told me what the concierge had said to us prior to our departure from the Empire State building. I pushed the voice down and listened intently – the twenty foot tall '20s gangster was speaking again. "There is also the one she hides." The man turned sideways so that he could face the two demigods and satyr – God, how did I come up with _that_ word? – and speak directly to them. "The one that the Daughter of Ares hides is the key to you being invited here to be told of your quest. The one she hides deserves her rightful place at Camp, although she has more power now than she knows how to contain. The one she hides from all our eyes is the Lost Daughter of Hecate."

"Hey!" another voice shouted into the hall. This voice brought a fierce heat wave that washed over me even where I stood against the cool night air as the new voice spoke. "Don't end your little tirade like that, Zeus! _I'm_ the poetry god – _I'M_ supposed to be the one to do that!"

"Can it, Apollo!" the biker guy – my dad, Ares – fired back at the god that had just spoken. "Just let it go – Zeus' poetry is _way_ better than yours, anyway!"

"Ares! Apollo!" another voice – female, for once – resounded, carrying with it a power I could only hope to have. "Let's be rational. We did _not_ come here to cause a war. We came here to unite these heroes and begin them on their quest."

The blonde demigod turned to look at the goddess as she spoke, and I realized at once who both the goddess and girl were. The goddess was Athena, and the girl was a Daughter of Athena. Ares had introduced her to us as "Chase," and something tugged at my insides as I tried to remember. The blonde girl was, the blonde girl was . . .

"_Annabeth!_" I suddenly screamed, lurching forward and sprinting down the steps towards the blonde girl. "Oh, my gosh, _Annabeth_! Annabeth Chase! It's been forever since I've seen you!" My deadly-calm expression had dissipated at the sight of her, and I threw my arms around her in a huge hug. "Wow . . . the last time I saw you, you were with Luke and Thalia, being chased by monsters!"

~Keller~

After Nissa's outburst, I had honestly no idea what was going on. I'd _never_ seen Nissa this excited – and now she was hugging this girl as if she were some long-lost friend or relative that had been separated from her for almost her whole life.

I watched the blonde girl's expression. Her cool grey eyes – coincidentally, almost the same color as mine – scrunched up in confusion before an expression crossed her face and sparkled in her eyes, and it was an expression I knew at once: painful recognition.

"_Nissa?_" the girl – Nissa had called her Annabeth – whispered softly, and I knew that only Nissa, Galen, and I could hear it. Her voice rose so that everyone could be let in on the conversation. "Nissa, I – I thought you were _dead_! Luke told us to just leave you – gods, you were even older than _Thalia _at the time!" She broke away from Nissa to examine her face. "You still look as old as you did when we lost you! Sixteen . . ." Annabeth's voice broke off, and I hiked an eyebrow up to my hairline at what I was hearing. This was crazy – absolutely crazy! This _so _couldn't be happening! "But . . . how is this possible? How can you still look sixteen?"

Nissa made a sweeping gesture with her arms until they were spread wide. "It's what happens when you become an immortal. I'm a vampire now, Annabeth – I can never die, and I'm stuck forever at the age of sixteen."

Despite the silent look of disapproval, Annabeth pulled Nissa in for another hug.

"Um," Iliana said silently from the doorway, and we all turned to look at her. "So . . . where do I play into all of this, exactly? I know the door guy called me a Daughter of Hecate, but what the heck does that _mean_? I thought I was a Daughter of Hellewise – _not_ Hecate! And what does that big guy mean when he says 'Lost Daughter'? How can I be lost? I know where I am . . . well, sort of. But what does this all _mean_?" Suddenly, the little ball of corn silk-haired fluff stalked toward me and pointed an accusing finger at my nose. "And Keller – I thought _you_ said all I had to do was reveal myself as the Wild Power and defeat Azhdeha! And now I have to go on a . . . a . . . a _quest_? Keller," she said softly, turning her sad eyes up to look at me, "why did you lie to me?"

A lump had formed in my throat, but I swallowed it down to maintain my calm. "Iliana," I began, and confidence blossomed from my voice as Galen came to stand beside and laced his fingers through mine. "I never knew what extent your power would have to be used for. I honestly thought that defeating the dragon would be the end of it. I never meant to keep you and use you like a weapon, Iliana. I just . . ." At this point, I couldn't handle it anymore. I yanked my hand out of Galen's grip and rushed forward, through the door to the hall. Once I was outside, I shrank down and did something for the second time that day that I'd never really done in my life: I cried.


	4. The Quest Begins

Chapter 4:

The Quest Begins

~Keller~

For what seemed like the longest time, I sat outside the Hall of the Gods and cried. Me – Raksha Keller – crying? That never happened!

Well, now it was.

"Keller!" a voice called from the entrance to the hall. I looked up to see someone there – not any of my normal people, not even Galen – but goat boy. "That is your name, right?"

I nodded and let my head droop back down onto my knees. "Yes," I said against my legs. "Have you ever had that moment when everything seems like it's going wrong, and there's nothing you can do?" I tilted my tear-stained face up to look at goat boy. "Have you ever felt like the world was crumbling away beneath your feet? Like everything you knew was a lie?"

Goat boy sighed and scratched his head between his horns. "Only twice – once, when I thought my friend Annabeth back there had been killed by a monster that went by the name 'Dr. Thorn.' The second was the time I thought Percy – the other guy in there – was lost or dead. Other than that, I don't really think I've ever experienced that before, no." Nevertheless, he sat down next to me and put a hand on my back. "Hey – it's not your fault. If your friend in there had always been a Daughter of Ares, she was bound to find out soon enough." Suddenly realized that he hadn't introduced himself, he drew his hand back and held it out. "Hey – I'm Grover. Despite what your friend thought in there, I'm a satyr – _not_ a shapeshifter."

I shook his hand before letting it fall back down to my side. "Hi, I'm – oh, wait. I forgot. You already know my name." I looked at him quizzically. "Um, not to sound insensitive or anything, but we just met. Why did you come out here? Why didn't Galen?"

"Galen?" Grover repeated, stroking his goatee – hahahaha. "Oh – right. Your boyfriend, the leopard. He's trying to calm down that tiny little blonde fairy you have with you."

I had to laugh at that. "Iliana's not a fairy – she's a witch. She looks like a fairy, I know, but her powers are crazy beyond anyone's wildest dreams." I explained the whole deal about Iliana being a Wild Power to Grover – and he actually seemed intrigued.

"So . . . the Wild Powers are supposed to hold off the end of the world?" he asked once I'd finished.

I sighed and nodded. "Yep. That was the idea. We're still not sure, though, where the fourth one is, or even if the end of the world is going to come. Theories say December 21, 2012, and that deadline is approaching. If anything, we must find the fourth and final Wild Power to hold off the end of the world and secure that the world is safe for humans to continue living on. If the vampires take over – well, let's just say that it really wouldn't be the _best_ thing in the world."

He was silent for a long time – _I_ thought it was because he was taking everything in that I'd said. When he finally did speak, the words that came out of his mouth were the words I least expected to hear. "You know what, Keller? I like you. You're strong and brave, and you seem pretty fearless – well, in battle, anyway." I laughed a little. "But I think you're perfect for this quest. Percy, Annabeth, and I have been on quests before – but I think you and your friends could seriously help us find what we need to find and return it before Halloween."

I gave him a puzzled look. "And what might that be?"

Grover began explaining exactly what Zeus had told them about the Greek goddess Hecate's missing torches. He explained who Zeus said Iliana was – even though I already knew it perfectly well by now – and helped me understand why it was essential that Iliana go on this quest. "She doesn't seem that fearful, either," Grover continued, "so that's where you and your other friends come in. One of them happens to be a vampire _and_ a Daughter of Ares, so she must be pretty good at fighting. And you and your leopard boyfriend look like you could kick some serious monster butt!"

I smiled. "OK – I think I get it now. I think I can go back inside and face this – it is what we have to do, after all."

Grover smiled and stood up, offering me an arm to help me get to my feet. Then, we both went back into the Hall of the Gods to face the facts.

~Annabeth~

It was a shock seeing Nissa alive again. When I'd first seen her standing in the doorway when Ares claimed her, I'd thought she was just someone that looked a lot like her. I ruled out the possibility of her being a ghost – she _never_ would've been able to endure that! Although Nissa was a vampire now, I hoped – somewhere in my heart – that she was still the same girl that Thalia, Luke, and I had learned to call "big sis."

"How many monsters have you fought?" she asked me after we had broken out of our hug.

I laughed. "Oh, tons! Medusa, _anemoi thuelai_, hydras, this one monster that called himself Dr. Thorn, Atlas, Gaea . . . I've seen and battled _tons_!" I paused. "What about you? Er – what _do _you hunt, these days?"

Now it was her turn to laugh. "Rogue vamps, werewolves, 'shifters, witches . . . you know, whoever doesn't obey the law!"

"So . . . you're, like, a cop with a license to kill?" Percy was suddenly at my side, eager to get a word in to find out some information about my old friend.

"_Percy_!" I hissed in annoyance.

But Nissa just smiled. "No, it's OK! You could say that, though. We do uphold the laws of the Night World, but we also uphold the laws of Circle Daybreak – so when Night People are out of line, me and my buddies step in and take care of business."

"Cool," was all he said in response. Then, he looked around. "Hey – where'd Grover go?"

"Right here, buddy," Grover announced from the doorway, waving at Percy and I. He was standing with Keller – the panther girl – but he _looked_ like he was still in one piece. "Hey, Zeus!" At the sound of the satyr calling his name, the god turned around. "Keller agrees to go on the quest! She offers the help of the Daughter of Hecate, the Daughter of Ares, the other witch girl, herself, and the leopard boy – er, Galen." All was quiet for a long minute. "When do we start?" Grover finished, breaking the silence.

Ares grinned. "Oh, yeah! That's what I'm talkin' about! Quest time."

Zeus ignored him. "Very well. Young ones," the god addressed us all, "your quest begins now. As I previously stated, you have until midnight on All Hallows Eve to return Hecate's twin torches to her. Good luck, and –"

"Don't die!" Ares laughed.

Nissa rolled her eyes. "Thanks for the awesome advice, _Dad_." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

I couldn't help but laugh.

~Percy~

As we left Olympus, I couldn't help but think of everything that had just taken place. Back at Camp, Rachel (the Oracle) had told us that we would have a "rendezvous with a child of witchcraft" – that obviously meant the Hecate girl, the one the panther had called Iliana. However, Rachel had also prophesized of two "creatures of the wild," along with mentioning "the love of two that would tear the quest apart." The creatures of the wild had to be the panther and the leopard – Keller and Galen – but the only people in love were those two and Annabeth and I. How could our love – when we love those on our own sides – tear the quest apart?

"Hey," Annabeth said as she caught up with me, grabbing my hand. "What's up, Seaweed Brain? You seem kind of . . . distracted."

I tried to tell her that I wasn't, but that quickly failed. I couldn't lie to Annabeth. "I was just thinking about the prophecy – about how parts of it have already come true. We've come across the 'child of witchcraft' and the 'creatures of the wild,' but what about the two whose love is supposed to ruin the entire quest? You don't think it's you and I, do you?"

"No, Percy, I don't think it's us." She squeezed my hand to reassure me, and I squeezed hers back. "But I don't think it's the leopard and the panther either. It's obvious that those two are in love, but they're both on their side – the 'Night World,' or whatever they call it. I think the love the prophecy was describing was a love that will occur during the quest between one of them –" she gestured to the five Night People in front of them "– and one of us." She gestured to herself, Grover, and me.

"I won't let it be me," I said forcefully, holding her hand more tightly. "I wouldn't do that to you."

Annabeth smiled and kissed me quickly before continuing to walk towards the elevator.

"Stop thinking amongst yourselves!" the vampire girl Nissa suddenly burst out. Ahead of us, both Keller and Galen turned to look at her: Galen with confusion, Keller with a scowl.

"Well, excuse us, Nissa," Keller began, and – despite her scowl – her voice was eerily calm. "We don't really expect you to be able to hear us when we communicate through our soulmate connection."

I watched with intense curiosity as Nissa sobered, straightened, and turned away from the eyes of Keller and Galen. I expected her to fire back some smart-aleck remark, but all she said was: "Sorry, Boss," and kept walking.

I was about to ask Annabeth if she'd always been like that when I noticed something odd. Just a minute or two ago, when we'd been talking about the prophecy, Grover had been walking with us. Now, the witch girl – Winfrith, or Winnie, or something – had lagged back from her group and was walking next to Grover, talking to him and laughing. Annabeth felt me tense, and I felt her grey eyes turn towards me. "You OK, Seaweed Brain?"

"I don't know," I murmured. And it was the truth – I didn't know. However, I figured that I had just figured out another piece of the prophecy – and it didn't look good.

As soon as we reached the bronze elevator, the doors slid open, and all eight of us stepped inside. The ride down to the main part of the building was silent – well, except for the annoying elevator music that began playing once we reached the actual floors of the Empire State building.

"You have returned!" the concierge at the desk said when Keller returned the key they'd used to access the elevator's top floor. "Na diaskedásoun sti̱n anazí̱ti̱sí̱ sas!"

"English, please?" Keller asked impatiently.

"Have fun on your quest," Annabeth, Grover, Nissa, and I translated.


	5. The First Roadblock

Chapter 5:

The First Roadblock

~Winnie~

"Where to now, Boss?" Nissa asked from the seat next to me.

I looked back to see Keller smiling, probably thinking the same thing I was: that this was just like old times. "Not sure." I watched as she glanced at Galen. "Any ideas?"

In turn, Galen turned to the very _back_ of the car, where Annabeth, Grover, and Percy were sitting. "Any ideas?" he repeated to the demigods and goat boy. "We've only every really tracked down rogue Night People – we're new to this whole 'quest' thing." I stifled a laugh when Galen put air quotes around the word "quest."

Apparently, Annabeth didn't think it was so funny. "You're right, Leopard Boy – you _haven't_ ever really been on a quest before, now have you?" There was a sharp edge to her voice when she spoke – I didn't think she liked Galen much. When he didn't reply, she shook her head. "Of course not. Nissa." Nissa's head snapped up to glance in the rearview mirror at Annabeth. "Get on the freeway going west. We're going cross country."

"Cross country?" I asked, curious as to where Annabeth intended on taking us. "Where are we going? You know, the Night World community has a big outpost of witches in Vegas –"

"No." Very rudely, Annabeth cut me off. "We're going to the most magical place on Earth – which, coincidentally, happens to also be the _happiest_ place on Earth."

"_Disneyland_?" Keller asked incredulously. To be fair, I was thinking the exact same thing. "We're going to freakin' _Disneyland_? OK – I think something _has_ to be wrong with you, girl! Disneyland is the _last_ place I would go to find witches!"

"Um, excuse me," Annabeth added smugly, "but the quest is to find the missing torches of Hecate – the _Greek goddess_ of witchcraft. While you may be witches or affiliated with witches, this isn't your little _Night World_ – this is the real thing."

While Keller and Annabeth argued in the back, Nissa took this time to converse with me. "OK," she began lightly, "I may know Annabeth from before I became a vampire, but I agree with you. I think we should go to Vegas."

"What about asking Iliana what _she_ thinks we should do?" I whispered so that only Nissa could hear. "I mean – that one guy called her the Daughter of Hecate, so maybe she can channel her mother and figure out where it is we need to go." When Nissa shot me a funny look, I sighed. "Oh, come on! It's worth a shot, right? What do we have to lose? The deadline isn't for two weeks."

Nissa groaned and looked back at the road. Either way – Disneyland or Vegas – she'd have to get on the freeway going west. "Iliana!" she bellowed above the bickering. The entire car went quiet. "You're the Daughter of Hecate. Tell us where to go."

I turned around in my seat to look at Iliana, and saw that a peaceful sort of calm had fallen over her. She closed her eyes and began mumbling something – an incantation? Surely nothing I'd ever taught her. I couldn't even make out the words . . . they sounded sort of like the words the concierge back at the Empire State building had used. Oh, no way – was Iliana speaking _Greek_? Was she trying to contact her mother? With a clearly audible _snap!_, her eyes flew open. "We have to go to both places."

"_Both_ places?" Keller and Annabeth both asked at the same time – _a rare occurrence_, I thought. "How?"

Iliana closed her eyes again. This time, however, she began speaking while her eyes were closed. "One of the torches is in Disneyland – but Hecate's domain is in Las Vegas." She opened her eyes and turned slightly to look at me. "That's all she would tell me. But you're a witch too, Winnie – can't _you_ contact Hecate and ask her where the other torch is?"

I shook my head sadly. "Sorry – I can't. You're closer to Hecate than I am, Iliana – you're a Harman. That has to be why you're a demigod – you were so close to Hecate already that she might as well have been your true mother." I sighed and turned back to face the front windshield, slumping down in my seat. "I'm sorry, Iliana. I wish I could, but – I can't." At the exact same moment I finished talking, I felt something hit my right shoulder. I looked down to see if whatever had hit me had landed in the pocket on the door, and – sure enough – I picked up a little pebble. I twisted my head so I was looking over my right shoulder – where everyone else but Nissa could tell that I was turned around – and saw Grover grinning at me. He wasn't really that bad looking – the green floppy cap that hid the horns on his head went well with his tan-ish hair, and his smile was absolutely stunning. I smiled back and wiggled my fingers in a mini wave, but then I realized something and spun back around to face the front windshield. Was that what Keller had felt like when she'd first discovered that Galen was her soulmate? Could it be possible that the one person – the only person – out in the universe for me was a goat boy?

~Annabeth~

It was getting dark. I looked out the window from where my head rested on Percy's shoulder, and he put his arm around me. It was nice knowing that, no matter how complicated our lives got, I'd always have Percy to help me balance things out.

"This is going to be the most dangerous quest yet," I whispered. "Zeus and Athena said as much." I snuggled up to Percy more. "And you're right – the prophecy keeps nagging at me. '_Rendezvous with a child of witchcraft, / Journey to the land of long time spent before. / The creatures of the wild that you must encounter / Are essential to the quest for success to be insured. / The fighting spirit comes from within, / And the true magic lies in the innocent's heart. / But ever wary of deception you shall be, / As the love of two that would tear the quest apart / Are among you, and to complete the scene, / And lay the dreams of the past to rest, / One must face the greatest decision – / One must face the ultimate test_.'" I finished reciting the prophecy and sighed. "Oh, Percy. I don't know what to do anymore. This prophecy seemed so simple – and yet, so difficult." I took my head off his shoulder and grabbed both of his hands in mine, turning to look him in the face. "What if it is us that the prophecy is talking about, Percy? What if our love will tear the quest apart?"

He detached his hands from my grasp and swept a piece of my hair out of my face. "It's not us, Annabeth," he whispered softly, cupping the back of my neck with his hand. "I can assure you of that." With that last sentence, he leaned forward the last few inches he needed to meet my lips. The kiss was slow and sweet, and I draped my arms around his neck as he wrapped his around my waist. I would've stayed here for longer – just holding Percy in my arms and kissing him – but Nissa hit a pothole in the road that awakened everyone in the car and caused Percy and I to spring apart.

"Sorry Boss!" Nissa fired back. At first, I thought she was talking to me. Then, with a twinge of utter annoyance, I realized that she was talking to Keller.

In the row of seats in front of Percy, Grover, and I, Keller shifted in her seat until she was sitting up straight again. "Oh, it's fine, Nissa. It's harder to drive at night – just be careful."

"Will do, Boss!" Nissa answered.

~Keller~

Sleep was hard to find – especially with three Greek freaks in the back that I didn't know if I could trust or not. However, I did manage to catch a little bit of shut-eye. And, as I slept, I dreamed.

We – Nissa, Galen, Iliana, Winnie, and I – stood atop a great mountain. The scenery that stretched away to the horizon before us was beautiful – tall pines looked ready to pierce the sky with their pointy tops, and the sky reached out to forever in an endless ocean of blue. Suddenly, though, the scene changed. The sky darkened – first to a cool cobalt, then to a menacing blackish grey – as clouds churned and blades of lightning flashed across the horizon. "_WHAT'S HAPPENING?_" I yelled mentally and physically to Galen as wind whipped my hair around me.

But no one answered. When I managed to part my hair to see where everyone had gone, I was all alone – no one else was anywhere around me. "Nissa?" I asked cautiously. The only answer was the howl of the wind. "Iliana? Winnie?" The last name I screamed – if he wasn't anywhere to be found, then I was literally doomed. "_GALEN?_" I screamed against the ever-increasing sound of wind. Still no reply. I sat down on the grassy part of the mountain and buried my face in my hands.

"Quite a problem you have on your hands, isn't it?" a voice asked. I looked up to see some guy wearing a toga, his hair flowing in the wind.

"Who are you?" I asked fiercely, jumping up and forcing myself to half-turn. "Where are my friends? If you don't tell me where they are, then so help me, I will go all-out deadly panther on you! Don't think I won't." I felt the need to add the last sentence. It may be dream world, but I could still kick somebody's butt.

The man laughed and did a flip in the air. "Oh, no, my dear! You have it all wrong! I did nothing with your friends – I just simply needed to talk to _you_, and only you." The blue-tinted grey haired guy in the toga gestured for me to step forward. "Now, Raksha Keller, do you know who I am?"

I hated this guy on sight. How the hell did he know my name? "No. But my guess is that you're really just another one of those twenty-foot tall giants that we met at the top floor of the Empire State building. Greek, I suppose. I don't know who you are – Greek mythology was never really a practical thing for me to study up on."

"Mythology – bah! All the myths are true!" the man spat, and I suddenly remembered what people like him were: gods. This guy was a Greek god. "Well, anyway, that's very disappointing. But I'm Aeolus – controller of the winds. You're correct – I am Greek."

Maybe I was missing something here. "OK – did you just bring me here to tell me this, or do you actually have something meaningful to tell me? Because I have to wake up soon and possible to help Nissa navigate."

Aeolus smiled. "That's actually what I wanted to speak to you about. When you wake up, you'll face some turbulence. I can see this because I'm a god. However, it's not exactly wind-related, so I can't really help you there. But I can give you this . . ." He reached into an inside pocket of his toga – do togas have pockets? – and drew out what looked like a thermos in a little kid's lunchbox. "This is wind – the most powerful winds in all of Olympus. It has the strength to propel any beast back to the depths of Tartarus. Use it well – and only when needed."

I sighed and took the thermos. As my hand closed around it, the violent winds suddenly ceased, and the sky returned to normal. Aeolus was gone – "gone with the wind." Haha. I laid down on the top of the mountain and peacefully drifted back to sleep.

In my actual body, my eyes immediately snapped open. Nissa was still driving, but . . . had she fallen asleep? "Nissa!" I hissed. No response. About two miles ahead of us, I noticed something stirring amongst the underbrush. Something like a snake . . .

"_NISSA!_" I bellowed. Her eyes snapped open, and she noticed the snake too. She slammed on the brakes, and I heard everyone in the car groan as they were awakened from their slumbers and thrown against the dashboard or seats of the car. So _this_ was what Aeolus had meant by our first roadblock!

But the snake creature got bigger. Emerging from the underbrush, I could see that half of its body was that of a woman, while the other half was that of a snake.

"Echidna," I distinctly heard Annabeth whisper under her breath. "Oh, crap."


	6. Monster RunIn

Chapter 6:

Monster Run-In

~Keller~

"What the hell is an Echidna?" I screamed over the roar of the giant snake-woman creature. "Is it something from your little Greek fantasy world?" I paused, but Annabeth didn't chime in with an answer. Frustrated beyond belief, I turned around and tried to slap her across the face. "_WHAT THE HELL IS AN ECHIDNA?_"

Percy grabbed my wrist before my hand could collide with Annabeth's face. "The Echidna," he answered, and I could see the amount of strain it put on him to keep his voice level, "is a Greek – yes, Greek – monster with the bottom half of a snake and the top half of a woman."

On the other side of Iliana, Galen turned to look back at the demigods and satyr, too. "Wait . . . isn't the Echidna the keeper of the vineyard?" Goat-boy – the satyr – nodded slowly. "OK." Galen must've been building up to something big. "Then how is there an Echidna here? We're still on the east coast, and –" He was interrupted by a small cough from Annabeth. I watched as he turned all his attention on her, narrowing his eyes. "What just happened? You didn't turn this car into Apollo's freaking sun chariot, did you?"

"No!" Annabeth yelled back at Galen – she was getting pretty mad! "I didn't _turn_ this car into the sun chariot, you idiot! I'm a Daughter of Athena – I can't do that!" The volume of her voice dropped, and then she mumbled: "It was the sun chariot to begin with. Once, Apollo turned it into a bus for us – it can turn into any type of vehicle."

Galen turned back around and slumped back in his seat. "OK – great. We covered so many miles in only a few hours." He glanced out the window. "So . . . where are we?"

"Napa, California," Nissa answered. "After a while of driving the car up in the air – which was super freaky, by the way – we had to land. As soon as I landed the car, I saw a sign that said 'Welcome to Napa.'" She yanked the keys out of the ignition and grabbed her fighting stick. I watched Winnie's attempt at protest as Nissa pushed her door open, but Nissa shrugged off Winnie's warning hand. "I'm fine, Winfrith. Let me go do this."

At the same time, Annabeth leapt up and out of the car, brandishing her dagger. "Me too. I could kick some monster butt right now – I've been stuck in that car for too long."

I sighed and turned halfway – I was a better fighter halfway than I was with no panther fighting skills at all. Then I swung my door open, gesturing for Galen and Iliana to follow me. "Guess we're all fighting," I said. Once Galen was out of the car, I turned my attention toward him. "Only turn halfway – we still need to be able to talk." For the rest of what I needed to say, I switched to soulmate communication. _I _love _communicating like this, but we need to be able to stay in touch with the others and warn them in case something comes up._

Galen grinned. _Whatever you say, Boss_, he answered in my head. He turned to look at Nissa – obviously reading her expression to see if she had heard our silent communication. Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice – yay!

Percy pulled out a pen – just a regular office pen, one with a cap – and grasped it like he would the hilt of a sword. Winnie laughed. "Are you kidding me? That's your weapon – a _pen_? If your weapon is a pen, then you ought to be an author or debater rather than a demigod!"

Nissa, on the other hand, seemed mesmerized by the pen – a _pen_! "_Anaklusmos_," she whispered under her breath. "Wow – I never thought I'd see it again!" She turned to Annabeth. "Didn't Chiron have it when I last saw it?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Annabeth grin. "I knew you'd recognize it." With that, Percy uncapped the pen, and – strangely enough – it extended into a full sword.

"What's that made of?" I asked, curious as to how it worked. "It's Greek – right? So, is it gold, or silver, or –"

"Bronze," the satyr – Grover – answered me. "Of the celestial type. It can kill monsters, demigods, and – if necessary – it can wound gods. Of course, it would also work on Night World creatures – you know, assuming that they would be classified to the Greeks as monsters."

I rolled my eyes. "OK. Well, that would make sense why those two pulled their weapons on us when we entered the hall of the gods." I turned in the direction of the Echidna, and my eyes focused in on the creature to spot every little detail – and weakness – about it. "Hey – are we gonna go attack this thing, or what? Because I really wanted to get going again – we need to get to Disneyland and get the first torch. Then we need to find out where we need to go for the second."

From my right, Annabeth sighed. "OK – Keller does have a point. Percy! Grover!" she barked, and the boys rushed to her side. "Ready for battle . . ." She paused. After a long moment of pure silence – except for the whistling of the wind – Annabeth uttered a battle cry, alerting all of us that we needed to advance on the beast. "CHARGE!"

~Annabeth~

"_CHARGE!_" I yelled, thrusting my dagger out in front of me so that it was pointing towards the Echidna. It felt good to lead a battle cry – I hadn't done it in so long that I'd forgotten how good it felt. I charged toward the monster with the rest of the quest group – and, I had to admit, Night People were pretty kick-butt fighters – Winfrith and Iliana were blasting the Echidna with all the power they could muster while Keller and Galen attacked it with their claws. Then, there was Nissa – good ol' Nissa – stabbing the creature repeatedly with her fighting stick. I had to laugh at that as I joined in the battle: Nissa may not have been the best person when it came to thinking creatively, but she was great when it came to logic and fighting!

"I'm surprised she's not a Daughter of Athena like you," Grover had whispered to me back in the car. "She seems so wise – and she's pretty good with weapons."

Watching the battle I fought in as it commenced, I couldn't help but think the same thing. Nissa had always reminded me of an older version of me – if I'd had to choose anyone to be my role model when I was younger, it would've been Nissa. But a question kept nagging at my subconscious: was Nissa still the same person she'd been when I'd last seen her, or had becoming a vampire changed her – forever? _Don't think about that_, I thought to myself. _Just focus on killing the Echidna. Right now, that's all that matters – we _need_ to get to Anaheim._

I lunged forward and slashed at the beast's chest just as I saw Keller go into full panther form. She leapt over Galen with incredible speed and skill – he was changing, too – and landed on the Echidna's back. The Echidna thrashed wildly, trying to throw the panther off of her back, but to no avail. Keller had sunk her claws into the beast's skin, and blood was trickling down the Echidna's back.

But it just wasn't enough. I glanced sideways at Percy and nodded once before rushing forward and doing our best attempts at stabbing the monster in the heart. Both of us tried, but neither of us succeeded – the Echidna swatted us both aside like flies and sent us sprawling onto the asphalt and gravel of the main road.

"Any ideas, Percy?" I asked breathlessly, sitting up and cleaning off my dagger from when I had injured the beast. "You fought that Echidna once – how did you kill it?"

Percy gulped. "That's just the thing – I didn't really _kill_ it. Something happened, but I jumped out of the elevator and into the water below the St. Louis Arc. That's how I survived." He picked up Riptide where it lay in the street just a few inches away. "Your guess is as good as mine. I say . . . try to go for its heart? Things usually die when you stab them in the heart, right?"

I laughed dryly and stood up, offering Percy a hand to help him stand. "Yes, Seaweed Brain. That's usually how it happens." Looking at the Echidna, Keller and Galen seemed to be doing a pretty fair job . . . of pissing it off even more. Yeah, there were holes in its back where Keller's claws were stuck in, but the thing was even madder than ever – using all the power it could to toss the panther on its back to the ground – and that's exactly what it did. In a matter of minutes, Keller was on her back on the ground in her half-and-half form. She wasn't moving.

"Die!" Percy and I screamed in unison as we rushed forward. Percy's sword struck the Echidna in the shoulder – I had figured out that the Echidna was right-handed and would be disabled if its right arm were to get wounded – while I took another dive for the creature's chest. It worked this time – and my dagger sank into the creature – past the rib cage. With that, the creature disappeared in a fine puff of dust.

"Keller!" Winnie, Galen, Iliana, and Nissa all chorused as they rushed forward to tend to their fallen friend. Galen put a hand on Keller's forehead and stroked her hair back – a gesture filled with open love – and then checked for a pulse at her neck. When he closed his eyes and sighed, I thought maybe she was dead. Oh no, one less quest mate . . . then, however, he opened his eyes and smiled slightly. "She's still alive," he explained to the others. "She's just weakened from the Echidna. She should get better soon, but she needs to regain her strength." With that, he hoisted her up into his arms and piled back into our stolen car.

I turned to tell Percy something – and froze. The witch – Winnie, not Iliana – was standing next to Grover with a worried expression on her face. Was she checking to make sure he was _OK_? Grover smiled – a nervous smile that I hadn't seen from him in a long time – and grabbed Winnie's hand, moving it back down to her side before letting go. "Percy." I nudged him until he turned his attention toward me. "I've figured out the lovers in the prophecy." I stuck my chin out towards Grover and Winnie.

Percy followed my gaze. He lost his smile from destroying the Echidna, and his eyes widened in shock and horror. "Oh, no."


	7. Trouble in Anaheim

Chapter 7:

Trouble in Anaheim

~Winnie~

When I saw Grover on the ground with blood seeping out from a cut in his leg, my heart jumped inside my chest. I didn't have time to consider how bad this all would be if Grover did turn out to be my soulmate – I just charged forward until I was at his side. "Grover!" I gasped, shrinking down to his level and checking for any other injuries. "Are you OK?"

He smiled nervously. "Interesting. I wasn't even sure you knew my name! Winnie, right?" He paused for a second, and I nodded. To go along with his nervous smile, Grover laughed nervously. "Anyway, Winnie, I'm fine." With that, he reached forward . . . and grabbed my hand.

Biggest mistake ever.

The world seemed to drop away beneath me, but somehow I managed to remain kneeling next to Grover. The scene twisted and morphed around us, until I was transported somewhere totally different. The half of the scenery I was on was deep forest green with surrounding foliage and nature, but the half of the scenery that Grover was on was tinged pink with swirls of orange and strawberry blonde – the same color as my hair – mixed in.

_I – I know you_, Grover whispered, a confused look crossing his face. He stepped forward – closer to the middle of the two-sided scenery – and I followed his lead. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. _What is this? Wait – you have a word for this kind of thing in the Night World, a . . . a . . . soulmate? _He paused. I was now standing right in front of him now, and he grabbed both my hands and held them in his. _It's weird, it's like I'm searching your thoughts . . ._

_And I can see yours_, I answered him, smiling. Suddenly, though, my heart dropped to the ground. One of Grover's memories depicted he, Annabeth, and Percy standing in front of a girl with red hair as green smoke swirled around them. As I watched the memory like a movie or TV show, the girl opened her mouth – a strange voice pouring out of it.

_Rendezvous with a child of witchcraft, _

_Journey to the land of long time spent before. _

_The creatures of the wild that you must encounter _

_Are essential to the quest for success to be insured. _

_The fighting spirit comes from within, _

_And the true magic lies in the innocent's heart. _

_But ever wary of deception you shall be, _

_As the love of two that would tear the quest apart _

_Are among you, and to complete the scene, _

_And lay the dreams of the past to rest, _

_One must face the greatest decision – _

_One must face the ultimate test_.

Noticing that I was looking at that memory, Grover's eyes widened – but he didn't let go of my hands. _The prophecy_, he whispered. _"As the love of two that would tear the quest apart are among you."_ He looked into my eyes now, and he wore a fearful expression. _The soulmate principle for Night People is the belief that there is only one true love for you in the entire world, and that you're destined to be with that person forever. But_ – he cut off for a second, his eyes widening more – if that was even possible. _According to the prophecy, love of two on separate sides will tear the quest apart. Winnie – this is a problem. A _BIG_ problem._

_Why?_ I wondered, suddenly confused. _Why is it such a problem?_ As soon as I spoke the words, I had my answer.

Grover just reiterated my suspicions for me. _I – I think I'm in love with you, Winnie. I may have just met you, but – oh, no. This isn't good at all._ He squeezed my hands tighter. _Can this soulmate thing be reversed?_

I blinked tears out of my eyes. This – connection – between Grover and I was destined to destroy the entire quest. As tears streamed down my face, I shook my head – my curls bouncing wildly around me. _No – it can't be reversed unless we both die. And then it's not even guaranteed that the connection will break._ I sobbed, and more tears flowed down my face. He dropped one of my hands to swipe a tear off of my cheek. _In the Night World, we have these things called Old Souls. Usually it's just mortals that keep getting reborn, but sometimes – on rare occasions – it's Night People, too. If they had a soulmate link with another person, they will _always_ be that person's soulmate – it doesn't matter if you're living or dead._

At this point, I was catapulted out of that space in our minds and transported back to reality. I was still kneeling next to Grover, and he had just let go of my hand after setting it back down at my side. My face felt wet from crying, but when I reached up to touch it, any tell-tale sign of tears was gone.

When I looked back at Grover, his eyes were sad – but he was looking at me in the same way Galen had looked at Keller after they'd just found out that _they_ were soulmates. He looked at me with an expression saddened by the idea that we were in love with each other, but that our love could never be. _Forbidden love_, I thought to myself. This would _definitely_ be looked down upon in the Night World – Grover was a Greek satyr, not a Night Person at all. I just had to face the facts: our love could _never_ be.

"Grover? Winnie?" Nissa asked warily, eyeing us both suspiciously. "What's going on?"

I met Grover's gaze for a moment, and a form of silent communication passed between us. I understood immediately. We couldn't tell _ANYONE_ about this – especially not our quest-mates. Turning back to Nissa, I managed a smile and said: "Nothing! It's fine, Nissa!" I beamed, trying my best to get her to believe my lies. "Everything is super! Well, except for Keller, of course." I rose to my feet and started walking back toward the car. "She needs our help right now."

I could tell from the look in Nissa's eyes that she didn't believe me one bit, but she shrugged and followed suit – turning toward the car. "Alright, Winfrith. But now we need to get to Disneyland, so I can't confront you about this right now." _But I will later._ Although Nissa didn't say the last words, I could almost see them hanging in the air between us. I opened my passenger side door and threw myself into my seat. After slamming my door, I slumped back in my seat and closed my eyes.

~Percy~

Once we were all back in the car, most of the attention was focused on Keller. She was still breathing and still had a pulse, but she was out cold from the Echidna attack. Winnie was staying out of the whole ordeal, and the Daughter of Hecate – Iliana, or whatever her name was – was making her best attempt at a healing spell. Nissa was driving, so there wasn't really much she could do, and Galen was holding Keller in his arms, stroking her hair back from her face and occasionally kissing her forehead gently. With the look I could see in his eyes, there was no doubt in my mind that those two were in love. Vaguely, I wondered if I'd ever looked at Annabeth like that. When I turned toward her and tried to put that look in my eyes, she looked at me funny.

"You OK, Seaweed Brain?" she asked, laughing a little. "You look like you're straining against something."

I sighed and blinked a few times, laughing along with her. "No – I'm fine. I was just trying something." To take the conversation away from the constipated look I'd just had in my eyes, I looked over at the window on the other side of Annabeth – the window that Grover was staring out of. "Grover," I said, reaching in front of Annabeth to poke him in the arm. "You OK, buddy? You haven't said much since we got back in the car."

When Grover turned toward me, I held back a gasp – and I could feel Annabeth's tension as she gripped my arm. The expression on Grover's face was one of sheer and utter panic – he _never_ looked like that, not unless we were in the middle of a fight. His eyes were wide, and I could tell from looking at him that he was holding something back that he just wanted to tell somebody. "E-everything is fine, Percy. Don't worry about me."

I couldn't help but worry. Grover only looked like that when things couldn't possibly get any worse. Usually, as I remembered from previous quests, this sort of thing happened when we were on a quest and a bad part of the prophecy we'd received before embarking on the quest had come true. The answer started to form in my mind, and I looked at Annabeth. Her eyes had grown as wide as mine felt, and she didn't hold my eye contact for long; she turned her head to look sideways at Grover, and then her gaze shifted to the front passenger side seat, where Winnie was sitting. Even from the back of the car, Annabeth and I could see the blonde witch slumping down in her seat, almost as if . . .

. . . As if she was upset. With one glance at the rearview mirror through the passenger-side window gave us a good look at her face – but that just confirmed our suspicions even more. The girl that had stood in front of Annabeth and I on Olympus and threatened to hurt us if we didn't drop our weapons was gone now. In her place sat a girl that mirrored her appearance, but with a depressed expression and no fierce aura surrounding her that would indicate how much of a warrior she was. The shine in her eyes came from recently-shed tears, I could tell – though no tell-tale lines streaked her cheeks.

"I'm worried about her," a new voice said in hushed tones, joining our conversation.

I looked at Galen quizzically where he sat between Iliana and Keller in the middle row of seats. "You're worried about Keller?" I questioned him. "I mean, yeah, everyone is. She's one of our best fighters – we need her to help us with this quest."

Galen turned his green gaze toward us and shook his head. "No – I don't mean Keller. I know she'll be fine – she's already recovering." He jutted his chin toward the passenger seat. "I was talking about Winnie. She's _never_ looked this depressed before. She's usually the Energizer Bunny with blonde hair." He shook his head. Then, however, his gaze drifted to Annabeth. I followed his eyes and saw that Annabeth still had that stricken look on her face. Galen shifted in his seat until he was twisted around to look at us. "What? What do you know?"

I realized suddenly what Annabeth must be thinking about, and I shut my eyes. With my eyes still closed, I recited the prophecy the Oracle had given us to Galen. As I came to the part that talked about the love of two that would destroy the quest, Annabeth stiffened and sank her nails into my arm. After I was done, I opened my eyes and sat back in my seat, looking at Galen solemnly. "Do you understand it now?"

Galen's eyes had widened, and he glanced down at Keller – still sleeping in his arms – before looking back at us to answer. He muttered something that sounded like "the soulmate principle" under his breath, but he was really quiet, so I couldn't really tell. Loud enough for only Annabeth and I to hear, he said: "Winnie is in love. With your satyr. She saw the prophecy you just told me when she entered his mind – she _had_ to have – and now she thinks the same thing the rest of us do: if they let their love happen, it will destroy the entire quest." He paused momentarily. "Do all your prophecies usually end up coming true?"

I nodded.

Galen shut his eyes. "Fantastic." He turned back around and stroked Keller's head – almost like he was petting her.

"Welcome to Anaheim!" Nissa announced from the front seat. I craned my head to look out Grover's window just in time to watch the sign announcing where we were drift by.

I took Annabeth's hand in mine and squeezed. "Almost there," I said softly, kissing her lightly on the cheek. "One torch down, one to go. Then off to Vegas."

She smiled, but I could tell that it was forced. "We don't even have it yet, Percy. Wait until we actually have it to say that we do."

Suddenly, the car screeched to a halt. Those of us in the back and middle rows slammed into the seats in front of us, and a waterfall of black hair jolted up in the middle row of seats – now wide awake. "Nissa!" Keller barked, and I could detect a new-found strength in her voice. "What just happened?"

Nissa turned around momentarily to look at Keller. "Boss! You're awake." She turned back toward the window. "Um, I'm sorry I had to do that, but you really need to see this."

All of us looked out toward where Disneyland – our first destination – was located, and everyone that wasn't familiar with the power of the Greek gods gasped. Annabeth, Grover, and I just groaned. A single storm cloud hovered over the theme park – and _only_ the theme park. Lightning flashed down and illuminated the metal roller coaster tracks in the dark of the night, and spirits drifted down from the storm cloud, surrounding the park on all sides.

"Fan-freakin'-tastic," Nissa remarked from the front seat. "Hecate's pissed now. That's the only reason she'd be sending down all these spirits." She took a moment to consider something as lightning illuminated the park. "And Zeus isn't a particularly happy guy right now, either." With this pause, she sighed and turned around in her seat to look at everyone else in the car. "Now we don't just have to fight to get the torch once we're _inside_ the park. Now we actually need to fight to get _into_ the park."

**Please review! I'd like to hear what you guys think of the story so far, and maybe you have some ideas of what you'd like to happen in the story! Either way, please review! :) Oh - and please go vote in the poll on my profile for which crossover you'd like to see next! It would be greatly appreciated! :)**


	8. Things Fall Apart

Chapter 8:

Things Fall Apart

~Keller~

The moment I opened my eyes, I knew something was wrong. Nissa didn't have to point out the ominous storm cloud circling only over Disneyland – everyone could see it.

"Fan-freakin'-tastic," Nissa remarked from the front seat. "Hecate's pissed now. That's the only reason she'd be sending down all these spirits." She took a moment to consider something as lightning illuminated the park. "And Zeus isn't a particularly happy guy right now, either." With this pause, she sighed and turned around in her seat to look at everyone else in the car. "Now we don't just have to fight to get the torch once we're _inside_ the park. Now we actually need to fight to get _into_ the park."

I leaned forward in my seat to look past Galen to Iliana. I could see now why Grover had mistaken her for a fairy – in the outfit she was wearing right now, she didn't look big, mighty, or powerful. In fact, she looked like something a dragon in a fairytale would pick out of its teeth with its claws. "Iliana!" She turned her frightened gaze towards me. "You're a daughter of Hecate! Can you, I don't know, _control the spirits_? We _need_ to get into Disneyland, but we can't very well do that with those – _things _– blocking our path!"

Iliana's gaze felt like it was seeping straight through me, to my soul, and she was shaking like a Chihuahua surrounded by angry grizzly bears. "There's too many, Keller! Even if I wanted to, they wouldn't _all_ obey me!"

I'd noticed that Winnie had been slumped down in her seat, but she suddenly bolted up and leapt out of the car. "You're forgetting that I'm a witch too, Keller," she hissed, an orange ball of energy flickering from her hands and setting the darkness ablaze with fiery light. "I can fight off these creatures, too." With that final thought, she rushed forward toward the theme park.

"Winnie – _no_!" a voice screamed, and everyone turned to the back seat to see Grover flinging the door open and hopping out of the car.

"Grover!" Annabeth screamed. "What are you doing?"

Before answering Annabeth, Grover turned to meet my gaze – and I understood exactly what was going on. The expression of Grover's face mirrored the expression that had been on Galen's face when the dragon Azhdeha had almost killed me. It was the look that Galen had given me when he had found out we were soulmates, even though he thought he had to marry Iliana at the time. Grover was getting ready to chase after Winnie because he was in love with her – he was her soulmate. He couldn't let her die. "This is bigger than the quest, Annabeth," he said, staring at the other blonde girl with all the conviction he could muster. "This is even bigger than me. I _have_ to do this." Without waiting for a reply, he slammed the door and galloped after Winnie.

Realization caused Iliana's eyes to widen. "Keller – are Grover and Winnie . . .?"

I nodded. "Yes, Iliana. Grover and Winnie are soulmates – like Galen and I." _I could tell in his eyes when he looked back at me,_ I silently explained to Galen. _He wore the same expression you did when I almost died at Azhdeha's hand._

Galen's only response was to squeeze my hand. Out loud, he said: "C'mon, Keller. We can't let those two face this alone. Soulmates gotta stick together."

I smiled at my true love and followed him out of the car despite the screaming protest from those in the car. As soon as we were a decent distance away from the car, Galen and I – still holding hands – jumped into the air and Changed. I felt his paw detach from mine, and then we were on the ground – sprinting toward Disneyland at top speed.

~Annabeth~

I leaned back in my seat, and a single tear escaped my closed eyes and trickled down my cheek. The prophecy was coming true – as expected. Soon, the quest would fall apart – and we would fail. On Halloween, the spirits would be set loose to wreak havoc on the world, and _we_ would be the ones responsible.

"Annabeth?" I opened my eyes to see the Daughter of Hecate – Iliana – examining me. Her expression was replete with concern. "Are you OK?"

I sighed shakily, more tears pouring down my face. "No. I'll never be OK again. I've _never_ failed a quest. _Ever_. Even when the prophecies said I was destined to fail. Iliana," I looked intently – through tear-soaked eyes, I might add – at the other girl. "I'm sorry. You already seemed like you'd been through a lot when we met you, but I just pushed you into more crap by saying we needed to listen to the gods when they said you had to come on this quest. If I could go back and redo it, believe me, I would." I dissolved into a fit of sobs, and Percy wrapped his arms around me and held me close.

To my surprise, Iliana responded to my rant. "I wouldn't."

I turned my head just slightly away from Percy to look at the other girl. "What?"

Iliana smiled sadly. "I said I wouldn't go back and change it. Just like I wouldn't go back and change meeting Keller, Galen, Winnie, and Nissa. They've become my friends, and – although I don't always _like_ what I have to do, it gives me a sense of adventure. I used to be too scared by the idea to even consider it, but they changed that. I wouldn't redo anything that's happened in my life."

I looked at her in surprise and detached myself slightly from Percy. When I had met this girl, she'd been an emotional loose-cannon. I never thought that something so sensitive and seemingly-crazy would give me the best advice of all. With a flash of my hand, the door Grover had leapt out of flung wide open. "Come on, Seaweed Brain," I said, grabbing Percy's hand and pulling him behind me. "We have a battle to fight. Let's go."

~Nissa~

I wasn't entirely sure what was going on. I mean, yeah, I knew a gods-sent storm when I saw one. I just didn't understand the motives everyone had for escaping the car and charging toward the heart of the storm.

However, I did understand that my battle senses were tingling and attempting to propel me towards the fight.

"Go," Iliana said softly from the middle row of seats.

I looked up at her from the rearview mirror. "Iliana – are you sure? You need someone to protect you in case something happens –"

That did it.

"I do not need anyone's protection!" she screamed, rattling the car with the volume and force of her words. "I'm the freaking Wild Power, dammit! I defeated Azhdeha with my bare hands! _I AM A FREAKIN' DAUGHTER OF HECATE, NISSA!_ If I can't take care of myself by now, then something is seriously wrong with me!" At her pause, she stomped around to the front of the car and stood in the headlights so I could see her clearly. Her corn silk hair blew in the whipping storm wind, and the fierce lavender of her eyes gave her the image of a powerful warrior. "Get out of the car, Nissa!" she ordered. "We're going to fight! We will return these torches to my mother by Halloween if it's the last thing we do!"

I chuckled and jumped out of the car, grabbing my ironwood fighting stick from the trunk. "Yes ma'am!"

~Keller~

By the time Galen and I caught up with Winnie and Grover, the scene commencing in front of us wasn't good. Winnie was firing balls of energy at the spirits but nothing was doing any good; each time she fired one, the spirits would dissolve and reform where the blazing orange magic couldn't reach them. Grover was playing some sort of tune on a little instrument as if trying to calm the spirits down, but it wasn't working. By the time he realized this, the spirits were clawing and tearing at Winnie's bare arms and face. She screamed out in pain, the energy ball she'd been forming in her hands dissipating to a small hiss of flames against the cold, hurricane-force storm winds.

"Winnie!" Grover yelled, drawing a sword and rushing toward the spirits. The sword must've been made out of the same substance as Percy's sword – Celestial bronze – because it was able to wound the spirits when it touched them. But one satyr with a sword wasn't enough to protect Winnie – one spirit clawed at her and hoisted her into the air before throwing her backward and sending her crashing into the huge Mickey Mouse roller coaster in California Adventure. After the collision, she fell to the ground and lay there, unmoving.

_NOW!_ I thought to Galen, growling and pouncing forward. He followed my lead, and we advanced on Grover and the spirits he was fighting. I pounced on one of the spirits and tackled it to the ground. Before it had the chance to reform, I used my 'shifter senses to tap into the spirits life force – do spirits _have_ a "life" force? – and drained it of every drop of life. By the time I was done, a rotting skeleton lay in its place on the pavement.

Grover saw that, and he fought with more conviction, knowing that he _had_ to save Winnie. As I looked for another spirit to attack, I watched him unleash his goat-boy wrath onto a spirit that had just scratched up his arm.

"Grover!" The scream of the satyr's name traveled through the roaring winds, and it even sounded muffled to my panther ears. Following the voice, Percy and Annabeth charged into the battle: Percy uncapping his pen and turning it into a sword, Annabeth drawing her dagger from its sheath. When Annabeth saw Grover fighting the spirits, the look on her face told me all I needed to know. She'd _never_ seen Grover fight like this – _ever_. She was shocked and surprised with the skill he used to wield the sword to his liking when it came to destroying the spirits that might've killed his soulmate. "Grover – what are you _doing_?"

"Trying to save Winnie!" From where I was, I could see tears streaming out of Grover's eyes – but the satyr fought on.

I attacked another spirit and was sucking up the last of its life energy when I heard the pounding of feet against the pavement.

_Nissa and Iliana_, Galen told me, draining another spirit of its energy. _From what I can hear, Iliana _insisted _that she and Nissa come fight._

_The more help we can get with these monsters, the better_, I replied, tackling yet another spirit. I was just finishing up this one when I felt searing pain in my back. I turned my head back to see one of the spirits sinking its claws deep into my flesh. The pressure and pain was agony – I felt myself slipping away, slowly . . .

~Annabeth~

I was utterly shocked at what I was witnessing. Grover _never_ fought like that! He must really love Winnie. I watched with awed fascination as he slashed his sword at the spirits and watched as they faded away one by one – back into oblivion. Then some spirits attacked Percy, and I attacked them.

The battle was raging. Nissa and Iliana had joined, and Iliana was channeling her "special powers" and shooting glowing blue balls of fire at the spirits at such an amazing speed that the spirits had no time to reform before being blasted to bits. Nissa was back in Ares-fighting-mode, and she stabbed her ironwood fighting stick at the spirits. I couldn't help but think that it was made with Stygian iron with how effective it was at destroying the spirits. With all of us that could fight battling the spirits, their army soon vanished entirely and the sky cleared, revealing the star-speckled night sky above us.

No one got away without a few battle scars. Winnie and Keller had both been wounded to what seemed like the point of death, and Galen had a nasty-looking scar across his cheek. Nissa had a few slashes in her skin from the spirits' talons, but she was a vampire – and I was just learning that meant that she could heal quickly. Iliana had a tiny scratch on her cheek, but that was about it. Percy and I of course were wounded – but it was nothing a little ambrosia and nectar couldn't fix.

Grover, who had a bleeding cut on his leg, was hobbling toward Winnie where she lay at the foot of the gigantic roller coaster in California Adventure with Mickey Mouse's head on it. As I watched him pick her up and cradle her in his arms, my worries about the prophecy cleared. Tears dripped from his eyes onto Winnie's face, and I almost started crying as he gently kissed her cheek and held her close to him.

"This was what the prophecy meant," Percy whispered from where he stood next to me.

I looked at him with confusion written all over my face. "What do you mean? How does this work towards the prophecy about the quest?"

Percy cleared his throat before replying. "Things are falling apart. Grover won't fight if Winnie's not OK – he might quit the quest indefinitely because of this. We lost a powerful witch fighter, but we also might've lost our satyr."


	9. New City, New Help

Chapter 9:

New City, New Help

~Keller~

It was weird. The last time I'd been wounded like this, I hadn't had any thoughts or dreams until Nissa slammed on the brakes at Disneyland. At first, I thought it was another message from that annoying wind guy – I still hadn't needed those winds yet – but maybe this time he would give me the windbreaker of death! Oh, boy!

"Raksha Keller," a voice boomed around me, and winds as fierce as the ones in Disneyland ripped around me. By now, though, I was panicking a bit. No one ever called me by my first name – not even Galen. I spun around in all different directions until I came face-to-face with her. The long hair that billowed behind her was jet black, and her eyes couldn't stay the same color: one minute they were blazing red, the next they were neon purple, and the next forest green. She wore a long dark purple dress, and her face looked timeless – almost like she had never aged . . .

"M-Maya?" I was literally shaking in my black fur boots by now. "How is this possible? N-no. This can't be happening. Hannah and Thierry killed you! How are you here?" I took a minute to think about what I'd just said, and my eyes widened despite the debris flying around in the hurricane-wind. "Unless . . . I'm dead! No, no, no, no, no! This is the worst thing that could've happened! Galen – what will he do?"

When I looked back up at her, she was . . . laughing? "At peace, Keller," the woman said in a soft voice. "Maya is – or rather, _was_ – my daughter, but she met her end after experimenting with immortality. No – I am not my traitor of a daughter. I am Hecate, the goddess of witches and magic."

My jaw dropped, but I shook my head and cleared my throat before saying anything else. "Oh. I'm sorry. I just –" I sighed and sat back down on top of the mountain that seemed to haunt my dreams lately. "I've almost died a lot lately – too much, if you ask me. All on this quest to find _your_ stupid torches." I scowled at the goddess, but she didn't seem fazed. "I need to stay alive." Suddenly, a new thought entered my head. "Winnie!" I leapt to my feet and looked around the landscape, remembering numbly in the back of my mind that it was only me up here on this mountain – having a conversation with a goddess. I turned around to glare at Hecate. "Make me wake up! I need to wake up now to check and see if Winnie is OK!"

Hecate smiled. "Sometimes I question why you weren't born a witch, Keller. Your compassion and caring nature towards those that hold a place in your heart is rare for shapeshifters – well, rare for the shapeshifters I've met."

I glared swords, daggers, spears, and every other weapon I could think of at the goddess. "Are you just going to rant about me, or are you going to leave me so I can go back and tend to my team? They _need_ me!"

The goddess's smile never faded, and her eyes turned a warm shade of amber – they almost looked like melted caramel. "Very well. Good luck on the remainder of your quest, Raksha Keller. Your team is sure to find my torches – you _are_ the best." I was about to question her as to why the last phrase she said sounded like a joke, but the mountain faded out of focus from my mind.

"Keller?" I heard Galen whisper through the blackness. I opened my eyes to see his face looming over mine, and I felt his arms around me – cradling me against him. Everyone else in the car was fast asleep – well, except for Nissa, of course – and the sky was pitch black outside: the exact color of Hecate's hair. I shook my head to clear it of that thought and realized that Galen was talking to me again. "You need to stop trying to die. I can't stand this agony – and now Grover is feeling what it was like for me the _first_ time this happened to you on this quest." I looked behind our row of seats to the back of the car – and noticed something. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover still occupied the back row of seats, but Grover was holding Winnie, his tear-stained face perched against the window. Iliana was up front with Nissa, so the middle row of seats was only taken up by Galen and I.

Before he could say anything else, I put my hands on either side of his face and kissed him. It was a long kiss, and the touching of my lips against his caused me to feel the silver chord between us and hear it humming. His hands wrapped around me and held me close as our moment stretched on. Lingering memories of the first time this had happened entered my thoughts, but only Galen could see into my mind right now – I let them come. We'd been in Iliana's house, and neither of us could sleep that night. The connection we'd shared felt amazing, but I had been forced to forget it because I'd thought he had to marry Iliana to unite the 'shifters and witches.

"I love you, Keller," Galen whispered, breaking the kiss but continuing to hold me.

"I love you too, Galen." Although I had been out for what I guessed was several hours – maybe even a whole day – relaxing in Galen's arms was a peaceful experience. I noticed that his breathing had become even, so I snuggled against him and closed my eyes.

~Annabeth~

In all honesty, Keller was the _least_ of my worries after the battle with the spirits at Disneyland. Although it may have been selfish on my behalf, all I could think about was the connection between Grover and Winnie and how it related to the prophecy. I'd just heard Keller and Galen talking a bit, but they had been quiet for a while – I guessed they'd fallen asleep – so Keller was OK.

"Winnie," Grover whimpered, his hold on her body tightening. His eyes were closed, and his eyelids were moving frantically – he was having a bad dream. "N-no, Winnie, don't! Don't leave me!"

I _had _been asleep a moment ago, but fitful dreams of previous battles we'd encountered plagued my sleep and kept me awake. Percy was asleep – his arm draped lazily and absently around me – but he didn't seem to be having any nightmares.

"Remember when Luke got a hold of that potion that one time?" a voice from the front of the car asked quietly. I jumped at first – startled – but realized that it was Nissa. She laughed faintly before responding. "It made him crazier than a harpy! He tried to open Thalia's head – insisting that it was a spiky black coconut!"

At the thought of that memory, I laughed softly. We had been an interesting band of demigods: Nissa, Thalia, Luke, and I. And then Nissa had "died" (actually became a vampire) and Thalia had been turned into a tree . . . I pushed the negative thoughts away. "Ha. Remember when we were met Hermes? His talking snakes kept bickering about which one of us would most likely end up with Luke: me, or Thalia."

"'_I think it'll be the spiky haired one_,'" Nissa mimicked the voice of one of the snakes. "'_She looks like she'd be the one to end up with him!_'"

I remembered the direction the conversation had gone in, so I chuckled and joined in. "'_Oh, nuh-uh! It's _SOOO_ gonna be the blonde! Look at them – they're _perfect_ for each other!_'"

Nissa laughed a little more and muttered "Good times" under her breath. Then, in a whispered bossy-ish voice, she commanded: "Annabeth – go to sleep! You need rest – everyone does except for me! SLEEP!"

I smiled and whispered back in reply: "OK. Goodnight, Nissa." Then I closed my eyes and rested my head on Percy's shoulder before drifting off to sleep.

~Winnie~

I wasn't entirely sure what exactly had happened. One minute I'd been blasting spirits with magical energy, and the next – I was sleeping. Or, rather, what _seemed_ like sleeping. It wasn't the "Oh, I just drank a sleeping potion without realizing it and missed something big and important" kind of sleep – no. It felt as if I was extremely weak and had either passed out . . .

. . . Or was dying.

_No!_ I thought – er, _imagined_ myself thinking to myself. _I can't die! Grover and I just found out that we're soulmates! Oh, poo! I have the _worst_ luck ever!_

"Don't be so sure of that," a woman's voice broke through what I had perceived as silence. Opening my "dreaming" eyes, I looked around to see that I was in some sort of room. It looked almost like a grand ballroom of a hotel or casino – one that was all done-up for a dance or party or something. At the top of the stage in the ballroom, sitting upon a regal throne, was a girl with long blonde hair. I knew on the spot who she was – or, rather, who I _thought_ she was.

"Hellewise?" I asked hesitantly. I wasn't sure if I was seeing the real thing or not.

The girl laughed and changed form. Now, sitting in the throne was a woman with long black hair. I couldn't tell the color of the Hellewise look-a-like's eyes, but this girl's eyes constantly were changing colors – first ocean blue, then bubblegum pink, then polished silver.

This couldn't be happening.

"I must be dead," I remarked snidely to the woman in the chair. "Hannah the Old Soul and her soulmate Thierry Descouedres killed you – _Maya_." I was so angry, I sneered at her name. "What could you possibly want from me? Because there is nothing I would ever be willing to give _you_ – life or death!" I paused for a moment – no answer. "So . . . you can change your shape now? You don't deserve to be called a _witch_. You're like a combination of _all_ Night People now, aren't you?" No answer. I turned away from her – feeling my curls bounce around my face – and crossed my arms. "You sicken me."

The woman laughed again and rose from her throne, striding forward. When she opened her mouth to laugh, I noticed that her front canines – the teeth that would usually be pointed on a vampire – were shaped the same way as the rest of her teeth: normal, like an average human. "My dear Winfrith Arlin, no." The woman kept walking until she stood right in front of me, and I noticed that her eyes had taken on the blue color of winter. "I took the form of Hellewise in hopes that you would recognize my true identity. However, I am not my betrayal of a daughter – Maya – either."

The realization of who this was suddenly hit me, and I thought immediately of Iliana Harman – probably still recovering from the Disneyland attack – in the "quest car." "Y-you're H-Hecate," I stammered, suddenly feeling irrationally frightened. "Iliana's mother."

Hecate's eyes turned the light green of a lime, and her expression filled with pity. "Yes, indeed." She paused, and the expression in her eyes grew even sadder. "One thing you said is true, though. Winnie, dear – you're dying. Thanatos is waiting to escort you into the Underworld, and Hades is waiting there to judge you."

Despite the fact that the goddess just told me I was dying, the proper nouns used in her words were bugging me. "Who and who?"

She smiled sadly, and her eyes turned dark brown – nearly black. "Hades is the god of the dead and god of the Underworld, dear. Thanatos is the incarnation of Death."

Now's about the time where I freaked out about the "Oh, yeah – you're dying!" thing. "How could I be dying? No – this can't be happening! What about Grover? What about my friends? The quest? Keller –"

The goddess's smile lost its sadness, and her eyes turned an interesting shade of neon yellow. "It wasn't your time, dear child. You have the option to go back and continue living. Would you like tha-"

"Yes!" I interrupted Hecate. "Yes, yes, yes – a thousand times yes! Very much so! Please!"

Hecate laughed – a melodious, musical sound. "OK, Winnie." The goddess pursed her lips and exhaled, blowing out a stream of purple magic. The magic drifted its way toward me like a snake slithering toward its prey, and once it reached me, it entered my open mouth.

In the dream world, my back arched and I passed out in the middle of the ballroom. In the real world, my eyes snapped open and I jumped and gasped – loudly. Strong arms tightened around me, and I heard another gasp from the person that was holding me. I looked down first and saw that I was resting on legs covered in fur – _goat_ fur – with hooves where the feet should be. When I looked up, Grover was staring down at me – a smile stretching across his face as a few tears escaped his eyes. "Winnie," he whispered, and I noticed that it was nighttime – everyone else in the car (except Nissa, of course) was asleep. He hugged me tight, and a few of his tears landed on my shoulder. "I thought you were dead!"

I wrapped my arms around his neck and hugged him: hard. "I know, Grover! So did I!" I released him from the hug and looked him in the eyes. "But Grover – your prophecy must've been wrong! Hecate saved me!"

Rather than saying anything, Grover leaned forward and quickly kissed me. After that, I smiled and snuggled up to my soulmate – both of us drifting off to sleep.

~Keller~

When I awoke the next morning, I noticed three things before I was fully conscious: one, I was actually able to function. Two, Winnie was OK – she was sitting up, awake, with Grover. Three, we weren't in California anymore.

"Nissa?" I asked hesitantly. "Where are we?"

Before answering, Nissa smiled at me in her rearview mirror. "Glad to see you're awake, Boss!" She turned a sharp corner onto a busy street. A tall building that I assumed was a hotel/casino loomed up in front of us, and as my eyes traveled up the side of the building, I noticed that the word "Nugget" was written in orange lettering at the top of the tallest building. "As to where we are," Nissa continued, "Iliana got a vision from her mom last night. She told her to come to someplace called Sparks, Nevada, to find the next torch."

"Hmmm," Percy thought aloud from the backseat. "Sparks. Is Sparks anywhere close to Reno, by any chance?"

Nissa checked the GPS system built into the car. "Actually, yeah, Percy. If I got on the freeway, it would take us right to Reno. But we have to stay in Sparks – Iliana said that this is where Hecate said the next torch is."

Percy's stomach grumbled. "I'm hungry. Anywhere to eat around here?" Although I wasn't saying anything about it, I agreed with Poseidon Boy – it had seemed like forever since we'd last eaten, and I was _starving_!

Nissa chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm going to a Starbucks close to our destination."

"And our destination is where, exactly?" I asked. I was getting impatient that I hadn't been told yet where we were going.

"A Best Buy in the Sparks Galleria," Iliana recited like she had memorized it. "It's on Los Altos Parkway – you know, just in case you wanted the actual location!" She turned around from the passenger seat and smiled at me.

The rest of the ride – pretty much all of ten minutes – was spent in silence. As soon as Nissa had pulled into a parking space and turned off the ignition, all eight of us leapt out of the car and charged for the door. Once inside, we noticed something odd: the Starbucks was empty except for us and a group of four teenagers sitting at a table with papers strewn all over it. On each side sat a boy and a girl: there was a girl that looked like Annabeth a little bit, with shoulder length straight blonde hair, glasses, and bluish-green eyes. She sat across from a boy with spiky brown hair and big lips. Next to him sat a short tan girl with black hair and a huge smile on her face, and she sat across from a really pale boy with slightly reddish hair.

"Can we help you with something?" the blonde girl said, turning in her chair and setting something down on the table next to her coffee: a calculator. Oh, great – we'd run into a group of nerds doing homework.

"That depends," I replied, narrowing my eyes cautiously at the girl. "Who are you?"

Behind her black and white glasses, the girl narrowed her eyes back at me. "I think you should tell me that first. We were just innocently sitting here working on our AP Stats final – _you_ were the ones that came running in here like a bunch of madmen." She paused, waiting for an answer. When she realized that she wasn't going to get one until she gave me one, she sighed and rolled her eyes. "What do you think, Drea? What should I do?"

The tan girl's smile faltered a little, but the brown-haired boy answered for her. "Personally, Nikki, I think you should press them for information." He pointed at me with his pencil. "That girl in all black looks really suspicious."

"I'll show you suspicious," I muttered under my breath, preparing to lunge at the boy and Change.

"Stop." The blonde girl – Nikki – stuck out her hand. "You're Raksha Keller, aren't you?" She looked back at the rest of the group, and her eyes widened. "Oh, no freakin' way! Galen, Winnie, Nissa, Iliana – _and_ Percy, Grover, and Annabeth? Oh, this is just too good to be true?"

I raised an eyebrow at the girl. "You know us?"

The tan girl – Drea – suddenly smiled wider and jumped out of her seat. "Oh! Right! Kenz told me about this – Keller, Galen, Winnie, Nissa, and Iliana are all from that Night World series!"

I looked back at our group. Clearly, none of them knew what was going on, either. "Right, sure." I approached the table with the four nerds – er, AP Stats students – and put my hand down between where Nikki and the boy with reddish hair were sitting. The boy flinched. "OK – so you know us. But we only know two of you. You're Drea –" I pointed to the tan girl "– and you're Nikki –" I pointed to the blonde girl with the glasses. "What about you two?" I gestured to the guys. "Who are you?"

The brown-haired boy decided to do the talking. "Well, I'm Perry, and this is Gage." He gestured to the boy with the reddish hair. "So . . . what exactly is it that you want?"

"To know what kind of coffee is that Nikki got and find out where I can get some – ow!" After the first statement out of Percy's mouth, Annabeth elbowed him in the stomach to shut him up: rightfully so, too.

"Oh, just tell them, Keller!" Winnie insisted, stomping forward before anyone could stop her. She smiled at the nerds. "Gage, Drea, Perry, Nikki – we need your help at Best Buy after we get coffee and breakfast!"

Nikki snorted. "Dustin, Trent, or Tim could help you better than we could."

At that, Drea giggled. "Oh, Tim!" Perry joined in the laughter.

I sighed and pressed forward with the question. "No. We need _you_ to help us – even if you are just humans. We need help finding something. You see, we're on a quest with Percy, Annabeth, and Grover to find this mystical object of magical power. We're supposed to be able to find it at Best Buy."

Perry picked up his iPhone and pressed a button on it. Into the speaker, he asked: "What mystical, magical items can be found at Best Buy?" It took a second, but – in a female voice – the iPhone replied: "A fire-breathing three-headed dragon controlled by a Wii remote." Perry showed me the phone to prove that those exact words were written on the screen. "Siri never lies," he said. "She was probably talking about a new video game."

I was inclined to believe him, but I heard a gasp. When I turned around, Nissa, Annabeth, Percy, and Grover were all frozen with fear. "OK . . ." I began, figuring out what to say next. "Well, we still need your help. We need you to come to Best Buy with us after we get some breakfast."

Nikki turned to Gage. "Can I get a ride over there?"

Gage – the redheaded boy – shrugged. "Sure."

In turn, Nikki turned back to me. "Then it's settled. We'll come with you to Best Buy." Her helpful look suddenly turned into a glare. "Just let us finish our Stats final! We only have five problems left!"

I nodded and led the way over to the counter to order coffee and food, wondering – not for the first time since the quest started – how we'd been roped into this mess.


	10. Monsters Get Weirder

Chapter 10

Monsters Get Weirder

~Annabeth~

We got our coffee and muffins – or, in Grover's case, a fancy looking "scone" – and sat down at a table next to our mortal assistants to eat our breakfast. Although we were all hungry, Nissa, Percy, and I couldn't bear the thought of eating. Grover nibbled at his scone nervously, but he didn't drink his coffee. Instead, he started nibbling on the paper bag his scone had come in. I knew what was going through the demigods' – minus Iliana – minds: when the brown-haired boy Perry had asked Siri on his iPhone 4GS about what magical things could be found at a place called Best Buy, the answer that the app had produced sounded a bit too much like the description of a certain monster.

"I really wanted to just stay _away_ from the hydras," Grover murmured into his half-eaten paper bag. "Why does there have to be a _hydra_? And what is it doing – protecting the torch for the person that stole it? Did _it_ steal the torch?"

"Hydras aren't smart enough to steal torches, Grover," I answered him calmly. Off to my left, I heard the Mexican girl – Andrea (assuming that that's what "Drea" was a nickname for) – burst out laughing. I shook my head and continued. "It's probably just a minion for the _real_ torch thief, so it probably is protecting it."

If it had been possible for vampires to pale, Nissa would've been as white as the icing drizzled on Grover's scone – take my word for it, the vanilla bean icing was pure white. I honestly didn't think Nissa would be able to eat or drink anything other than blood, but she nervously took a sip of her coffee – probably just to maintain a normal image around her _boss_. "I haven't seen a hydra since . . . since before I died," she whispered.

Keller must've been tuning in to our conversation with her super panther ears, because she decided to speak up. "Whoa – what? Nissa – what's a hydra? There are no hydras in the Night World." She took a swig of her straight black, unsweetened coffee before continuing. "Personally, I thought that kid Perry meant we'd have to face down another dragon like Azhdeha. I mean, we could do it – Azhdeha was _the worst_. Anything after him would be a piece of cake."

I was tired of hearing that name – Azhdeha, I mean – without knowing what story went along with it. I sighed and picked off a chunk of my muffin, throwing it at Keller. She turned to glare at me, and for the longest – scariest – moment of my life, I thought she was going to morph into panther form and attack me. To prevent her from doing this, I hastily said: "Azhdeha. This, 'dragon,' or whatever, that you keep talking about. What is the deal with this? What – or _who_ – is an Azhdeha, and what the Hades happened?"

Keller's glare faded, and she closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. "Azhdeha was a dragon. By dragon, we all just thought at first that that meant that he was a 'shifter from a long time ago – they were called dragons back then, when they ruled the earth. Their seat of power was the horns on their head – they gave them the ability to change into anything they so desired. Apparently, that meant that they could also turn into _actual_ dragons." She sighed shakily and paused for a moment, reaching out and grabbing Galen's hand for comfort. With another shaky breath in an attempt to keep calm, she continued. "When we were sent by Circle Daybreak – a secret Night World organization – to find Iliana, the dragon had been awoken and was working for the enemy: the vampires that wanted to destroy all the Wild Powers. He was our hardest opponent to fight by far – I almost died for the first time fighting him. Galen took on his form as a leopard, and Iliana unleashed her witch powers and proved to us that she really was the Wild Power."

She glanced at Galen and squeezed his hand, and then he turned toward me. "That's the whole story, Annabeth."

I sat back in my chair – resolving to finally take a bite of my muffin. I glanced sideways and saw that Percy had already done so, and Nissa still hadn't touched hers – she only occasionally took sips of her coffee. Turning my attention to the table we sat at, I took the first bite of my muffin after not eating for a couple of days.

It was delicious.

After eating, we met the mortals by our car to discuss the game plan. The blonde girl – Nikki – kept eyeing me suspiciously, and she whispered something under her breath to the girl Andrea that sounded like "Percabeth." While she didn't seem to know what it meant, Perry did – he laughed a little. I had no idea what that meant, either – and, besides: how did this Nikki girl know so much about us? And, for that matter, how could she _see_ Grover's goat legs?

"So . . . we need to help you find the torch of the goddess of magic and get it back to her before Halloween?" Gage asked, obviously disbelieving the whole situation.

All eight of us nodded.

"But after this, we can't go with you to Vegas." Nikki didn't ask it as a question.

Keller groaned. "Exactly. I don't care how much you humans beg and plead, but you _can't _come to Vegas with us."

Something suddenly clicked in my head, and I realized how wrong Keller was to tell the mortals that they couldn't come with us to Vegas. I grabbed Keller's wrist and pulled her off to the side for a second to explain my reasoning. "We need them to come to Vegas with us." Keller began to protest, but I held up my hand to stop her. "We've been to Vegas on a quest before. It can get . . . tricky, to say the least. We need some Nevada natives – even if they aren't from Vegas – to help us."

"We have witch connections in Vegas to help us!" Keller hissed angrily. "Thierry Descouedres lives in Vegas! We don't need some dead-weight humans following us around! That's just a liability!"

I cocked my head to the side. "You're not a very good strategist, are you?" When she just looked at me, I groaned and rolled me eyes. "I'm a daughter of Athena – meaning, that I'm the best when it comes to wisdom and battle strategy. The mortals _are_ Nevada natives. Where we went to when we went to Vegas on one of our quests – _they may not be affected by the magic that is used there_. They may be able to keep us sane in that city of insanity – because I have a feeling that we'll get stuck in that place again. It was bound to happen sooner or later."

Keller scowled at me. After a long moment, she burst out laughing. "Y-you can't be serious! We have two _witches_ with us – one is a daughter of Hecate _and_ the Witch Child! We have connections to other witches in Vegas. We have all the protection we need from whatever screwy magic is worked at this place!"

She turned to go back to the group. I whispered "That's what you think _now_" under my breath before turning back and following Keller back to the group.

~Keller~

After my conversation with Annabeth, I was doomed to believe that she was crazy. These nerdy humans had no place in this quest. We had plenty protection! Hell, we had an entire community of witches at our back!

. . . So why did I have the strangest feeling that Annabeth was right?

"To Best Buy!" Winnie proclaimed as we hopped into our car. I decided that we would follow the humans to Best Buy – it would cut back on a lot of confusion. Once we got there and parked, we leapt out of the car.

"Everyone have their weapons?" Annabeth asked, her hand resting on the hilt of her dagger. Percy showed her his pen-sword, Nissa produced her ironwood fighting stick, Galen and I Turned halfway to reveal our claws, and Winnie and Iliana let sparks of magic fly around on their fingers. "Excellent," she said, looking as grim as ever. "Let's go."

The humans followed us closely behind – they were jabbering about a multitude of things: if Tim would come back and work at this Best Buy after he got done at Chapman, what questions they would ask Mr. V when they got back to school, what Drea might do at a future debate tournament and how soon she needed to talk to Mrs. Jones . . . The overuse of proper nouns that I'd never even heard of bored me greatly. Didn't they have anything to talk to _us_ about? I was surprised that Nikki didn't have any input or questions for us!

Despite my better judgment, the demigods led us into Best Buy – that is, Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Nissa – Grover doesn't really count as a demigod, but he fits into that group. As soon as we stepped one foot into the building, the four of them stopped abruptly; causing Galen, Iliana, Winnie, Nikki, Perry, Drea, Gage and I to all slam into them like a pile-up of cars. The Greek freaks eyes were all wide, and their jaws looked like they were going to fall to the floor. When I tried to follow their gaze, I saw nothing – at first. After I actually concentrated on the three Best Buy workers standing by a set-up of the new video-gaming system the Play Station Move and on the little wand thingy that went along with it, the air shimmered around the guys and the station. Where the wand sat on the edge of the display table by the game system, a flaming torch sat. Somehow, the flames didn't burn the table. When I looked back to the guards, my own mouth dropped to the floor. The three guards that had been standing by the gaming system fused together, becoming a three-headed reptilian monster . . .

. . . That looked a little bit like a dragon without wings.

"Hydra," I heard Nikki whisper under her breath, and all eight of the original quest members turned to look at her questioningly.

"How do you know that?" Annabeth said, her voice shaking with fear. Something must've seriously been up – I hadn't really seen Annabeth scared throughout all our time spent on this quest so far. "How can you see that? You shouldn't be able to see that!"

Nikki rolled her eyes and put her hand on her hip. "I'm an artist. I see things that people normally wouldn't see when it comes to the creative aspect of things. And I'm in love with Greek mythology," she said, as if that explained everything. "Oh, plus – I love Rick Riordan's books." She looked at Annabeth, Percy, and Grover intently, like the name "Rick Riordan" should have some significance to them. None of them demonstrated any sign of response.

I glanced back at Annabeth. "Why wouldn't you be able to see it? It's ten feet tall, and the middle head breathes fire!"

Before Annabeth could answer, Perry whistled. "Siri really _doesn't_ lie!"

Ignoring what Perry and I had just said, Annabeth continued to look incredulously at Nikki. "How can you see it? You shouldn't be able to see through the Mist! Unless . . ." She glanced sideways at Grover, and then at Percy, before turning her attention back to Nikki. "Are _you_ a demigod?"

Nikki looked at her friends, and all four of them burst into laughter. "No – I'm not a demigod!" she said, taking a deep breath and regaining her composure.

Nissa glanced at Grover at the same time Annabeth and Percy did. "Is she?" Nissa asked, a slight hint of fear that was totally uncharacteristic of the vampire.

Grover squinted at Nikki momentarily, and – sniffed! – the air around her before turning back to the Greek freaks. He shook his head. "Nope. Just a mortal that can see through the Mist, is all."

I shook my head to clear it. "OK – if we're gonna kill this monster and get the second torch, are we gonna fight this thing?"

Annabeth paused. "I would, but look at it!"

I turned to look at the hydra, or whatever it was called, and I nearly felt my jaw dislocate and drop to the floor. The hydra was now holding the torch and waving it around in front of a TV screen, while a boy that looked about ten-years-old waving around an _actual_ Play Station Move wand. Wait – was the hydra actually using Hecate's flaming torch to play on the video game with the kid?

"These monsters just keep getting weirder," Percy muttered under his breath.


	11. Second Torch Found

Chapter 11:

Second Torch Found

~Annabeth~

From the start of this quest, I hadn't known what to expect. I mean, this wasn't like any other quest – we were working with people that came from the Night World, a place I'd never even heard of! And the weirdness just kept getting worse. First, most of our Night People assistants almost get killed. Then, we find out that Grover and Winnie are meant to be soulmates – a fact that could disrupt the entire goal of our quest. After that, we go to an innocent breakfast at Starbucks and learn that our next location – the Best Buy in the Sparks Galleria – would be where we faced down a hydra that was protecting the second torch. And not just any hydra – no. We had to face down a hydra that appeared to everyone as a kid innocently testing a new video game. If we killed the hydra, we'd be turned into the police for man-slaughter of an innocent kid.

This quest couldn't get any worse.

"These monsters just keep getting weirder," Percy muttered under his breath.

I turned sideways to look at him. As always when we faced this sort of problem, I felt a stab of sympathy for my boyfriend. The first monster he'd ever seen was his pre-algebra teacher after she'd turned into a fury. He'd battled Kronos, defeated him, and then been brain-wiped and sent off to live with Roman demigods in California. From all he'd seen and battled, he had complete and total authority to determine whether or not a monster was weird.

"Keep your pen-weapon close, Fish Boy," Keller hissed at Percy. "Be ready to uncap it and spring into action at any moment. We need to figure out how to fight this thing."

"We _can't_ fight it!" I whisper-screamed, spinning Keller around to face me and gripping her shoulders. "The hydra is protected by the Mist. If we kill it, it will come off to everyone in the store as a gang of juvenile delinquents murdering an innocent kid. Unless you want to end this quest in a jail cell, I suggest you listen to me." She opened her mouth to protest, but I shook her violently. "I don't care what you do with Night People! I don't care how you kill rogue Night People! _I DON'T CARE! _This is _our_ quest, meaning you need to listen to what other people have to say. I've dealt with losing quest mates – hell, I've dealt with _being_ the lost quest mate! Nut up and listen to other people, or shut up. Agreed?" Keller crossed her arms, but she didn't even attempt to protest.

"Try not to get one of the heads taken off," Nikki was telling her group, and I spun around to look at her. With her next words, my eyes widened and I mouthed the words as she said them: "Each time you cut off one hydra head, two more grow back in its place."

For the first time since we'd met them, the girl Andrea wasn't smiling. Instead, she looked slightly pale. "Um, that's great and all, but we don't even _have_ weapons!" She pointed her chin in Percy's direction, and I imagined she was indicating Riptide. "I couldn't even _begin_ to think of how to use a sword!"

"Dead. Weight." I shot Keller a glare as she spoke the words aloud. Not _all_ mortals were dead weights – our Oracle, Rachel, would stand and fight with us no matter what!

That was about the time that Winnie and Grover stepped forward, holding hands. Winnie flashed us the same bright grin she had given us in the temple of the gods. "I know what to do!" she said cheerily, breaking her hand free of Grover's grip. "I know how to make it OK for us to fight the hydra – _without_ it looking like we're murdering an innocent kid!"

As Winnie explained her plan to us, I couldn't help thinking that, if she had been a demigod, she would've been a daughter of Athena. She was wise beyond her years, and the plan she had concocted demonstrated great knowledge of battle strategy.

Winnie walked over to the hydra/kid and mortal and said cheerfully: "Hey! Mind if I try a round?" The hydra, obviously trying to maintain its image cast through the Mist, scowled and groaned – but handed Winnie the torch anyway. The other eleven of us watched in amazement as the hydra slunk off in the other direction and let Winnie play the game with the mortal kid. We watched on in even more astonishment as the hydra – looking awfully crestfallen – exited the store and . . . walked away!

Nissa's eyes widened in astonishment and shock. "The hydra _wasn't_ guarding the torch, so what was?"

Before I could answer, I heard Winnie laugh. "Haha, beat you!" she gloated to the mortal. She began to walk off with the torch, but then the "mortal" boy turned toward us. I took in his appearance . . .

. . . And froze. The boy's eyes were silver pits, and his once innocent-looking expression was twisted into a scowl. As I watched in horror, the boy's form shuddered and changed, morphing into a cloud of black smoke.

"_Anemoi thuelai_," I whispered under my breath. The violent, dark winds charged toward us, and everything around us exploded into chaos.

~Keller~

At first, I was on the same thought pattern as Annabeth (shocker, I know). When the dark storm spirits started charging, I was under the impression that they were charging toward us. It took me a second to make sense of the situation, but I did realize the dark energy's true target: Winnie. _Winnie_ was walking toward us! The ghostly beast was charging Winnie, not us.

"Winnie – behind you!" Grover screamed, realizing at the same moment as me exactly what was going on. Winnie spun around to come face-to-face with the beast, and her mouth dropped open in horror.

"Percy! Riptide – now!" I wasn't entirely sure what Annabeth screamed to Percy, but soon the couple was rushing toward Winnie with their weapons drawn and ready. Percy lashed out at the creature with his bronze sword, and thick, black liquid trickled out from a wound on the monster's side. But that didn't stop it – it continued to come forward, and closer to Winnie.

Something clicked inside my head, and I remembered that I hadn't used the winds that Aeolus had given me inside the thermos. I dug around in my pocket until I found it, and I twisted off the cap. "Winnie!" I screamed through the roaring winds created by the storm spirits. "Drop the torch!"

Winnie did as I asked without questioning me, and the winds erupting from the thermos caught the torch and blew it back towards us. Galen plucked the torch from the air and gave me a look of astonishment, but I didn't have time to explain – the storm spirits kept rushing toward us.

"_DIE!_" Percy screamed, and we all watched as he lashed out with his sword once more. The storm spirit let out an awful scream before vanishing in a puff of gold dust.

"Scatter the dust!" Nikki suddenly screamed, and the homework nerds worked to spread the dust across the floor of Best Buy. When we all looked at her funny, she rolled her eyes. "Well, we need to keep them from reforming again, now don't we?" After the four nerds had completed their task, Nikki clapped her hands together and turned to us, grinning. "Now – Vegas?"


	12. Memories of Vegas

Chapter 12:

Memories of Vegas

~Keller~

As Nissa got on Highway 395 and headed toward Las Vegas, I couldn't help thinking about everything that the Night World had endured in the most commonly-known city in Nevada. It had been in Vegas where Poppy and her soulmate James had fought off Ash Redfern – who somehow managed to get himself stuck in the middle of every story concerning the Night World. It had been in Vegas where Blaise and Thea Harman had tricked the Council of the Witches into thinking that Thea was cast out for being in love with a human. It had been in Vegas where Thierry Descouedres and Hannah the Old Soul had defeated Maya.

Now, it would be in Vegas where we – along with our Greek demigod quest mates and a few AP Stats homework nerds – would find the goddess Hecate and return her stolen torches to her. Come to think of it, we still had _no_ idea who had actually taken the torches. All we knew was that one was in California and one was in the armpit of Nevada. And we'd managed to successfully gain control of both.

"OK," Annabeth began from the backseat, and everyone turned around in their own seats to face her, "we have the torches. We've battled monsters to get them, we've nearly lost some of our original quest mates, and we've gained even more people to aid us in our quest. It seems to me that the only question left is: Who was it that took the torches, and why?"

"My bets are on Hades," Percy chimed in from next to Annabeth. "Ares wouldn't steal something like that again – he was being influenced by Kronos when he stole Zeus' bolt. Hades is the Lord of the Underworld, so maybe he and Hecate had a deal or something about spirits of the dead being unleashed into the mortal world."

"Possibly . . ." Nissa murmured under her breath.

I turned toward our vampire driver and lifted an eyebrow. "'Possibly'? What do you mean by that? Do you know something that you're not telling us, Nissa?"

The vampire swallowed – hard. "Um, kinda, Boss," she stammered, somehow managing to keep her eyes locked on the road ahead. "My dad – Ares – contacted me in a dream the last time I slept. He showed me a vision of a great battle – we were on one side, and Hades was on the other side. But Hades wasn't the commander of the opposing side – he was just allied with her."

"'Her'?" a chorus of voices resounded throughout the car.

"The closest thing the Greeks have to a god – or goddess – of chaos," Nissa responded. I watched from the middle row of seats as she glanced back in the rearview mirror at the back row – where the Greek freaks were sitting.

Seeming to realize what Nissa, meant, Grover let out a nervous-goat bleat. "Nemesis. Goddess of revenge." After he quickly glanced at Percy, Annabeth, Nikki, and Nissa, they all seemed to come to a consensus.

I, for one, was horribly confused. "What with the who?"

Galen put his hand over mine and squeezed gently. "Nemesis is the Greek goddess of revenge, Keller. She's always looking to stir up trouble amongst the gods. If that's who Nissa saw commanding the opposing army in her vision . . ." Galen paused for a moment, gesturing toward Nissa. She nodded, and Galen continued. "Then that's who we're up against. She's a ruthless goddess – she only cares about causing problems. Hecate must've done something to her to make her feel this vengeful . . ."

"Figure out this problem later," Winnie said from the back seat, where she sat next to Grover. "Sleep now. We need to be well rested if we're going to even attempt to get Hecate's torches back to her."

"But we still have about a week . . ." I yawned.

~Annabeth~

"DON'T SAY THAT!" I bellowed at Keller from the back of the car. "Don't you EVER say that we have time! We're going to Vegas – _Vegas_! Do you have any idea what horrible things exist in Vegas?"

"Lotus Casino," Nikki muttered under her breath.

I turned to scowl at the other blonde girl where she and her nerd friends sat in the magically-added _very_ back row of the car. "Stop stealing my thunder!" Nikki shut her mouth, and I turned back to the others in the car. "The Lotus Hotel and Casino is in Las Vegas. It's the modern-day Lair of the Lotus-Eaters. They give you their lotus flowers to eat, and you can't leave their lair – you keep eating the lotuses, and you become stuck in their lair forever."

Keller cleared her throat – she was suddenly wide awake, thanks to my loud screaming. "Um, then what are we supposed to do?"

Now it was Iliana's turn to clear her throat, and the little featherweight girl's voice resonated throughout the car. "My mom – Hecate – sent me a dream last night. She's hiding out in the Excalibur, since its name conveys a sense of medieval times and magic. That's where we need to deliver the torches – that's where my mom will be waiting."

Galen turned around to look at us, now. Although he seemed to know a lot about the concept of Greek mythology, I could almost see the question tugging at his subconscious. "But – if we're _not_ going to the Lotus Casino, then this whole quest seems too easy. I know you don't like Keller saying that we still have a week, Annabeth, but it's a fact – we _do_ still have a week left before our midnight Halloween deadline. It seems like we were given too much time!"

Now it was Nissa's turn to clear her throat. "Um, hello? Did everyone forget the dream I said my dad sent me? Nemesis leading the opposing side and Hades allied with Nemesis?" Including the Stats students, everyone set their attention on Nissa. She sighed and rolled her eyes before continuing, obviously exasperated that none of us understood what she meant. "We may have to fight an army of monsters and gods. That could take up some of our time. I think it'll be the time _after_ the battle that'll matter as to how long we'll have to get the torches to Hecate at the Excalibur."

"But we'll have all your Night People in Vegas to join our side and help us, right?" Grover asked Winnie.

Winnie smiled at him – I could tell by the twinkle in her eyes just how much she loved our satyr. "Absolutely! When Night People need assistance, other Night People flock to their aid – wherever they may be. We'll have an entire army of witches, vampires, 'shifters, and even some werewolves behind us!"

I watched as Winnie gave Grover's hand a squeeze, and I jumped when Percy did the same to me. "See, Annabeth? We'll have allies, we'll get through this."

I returned his hand squeeze, but my mind was elsewhere. The West Coast had brought us demigods nothing but problems and pain – I couldn't imagine fighting a battle there against our own gods and goddesses. For the sake of our allies and the rest of our quest mates, I hoped to the gods that my boyfriend was right.


	13. An    Unwanted?    Addition

**This chapter was inspired by the first person to review this story on here: LandOfTheLivingSkys. They gave me the idea to add a few more people from the Night World Series . . . and the one I'm adding in particular seems like he is one of LandOfTheLivingSkys' favorites. Enjoy and keep on reading! R&R! :)**

Chapter 13:

An . . . Unwanted? . . . Addition

~Nissa~

Not gonna lie, the drive to Vegas seemed like it took _forever_. It may not have been like that for the rest of our quest group – everyone else slept while I had to drive. The barren, desert landscape of Nevada seemed to roll on forever in all directions – this dead state was an infinite stretch of dust, dirt, and cacti. I was almost relieved when sirens started blaring off in the distance – that cop was the only other car traveling on this road as far as I could tell.

"Nissa?" Keller asked sleepily from the middle row of seats. "What's going on? Why are there cops following us?"

"I don't know, Boss," I answered truthfully, letting a bit of my relief color my voice. "I wasn't trying to speed, but maybe it just got away from me. You know that happens when I drive long, boring distances."

"Well, pull over," Annabeth chimed in from the backseat. "We can try to reason with the cop; maybe do something with the Mist to make him forget that he noticed us speeding."

Turning my head so Keller couldn't see, I smiled. I'd forgotten how fun it was to use the Mist to trick mortals! "OK," I answered simply. The cop had caught up to us now, so I pulled over to the side of the road and rolled down the window – waiting patiently for the cop to get out of his car and come over to talk to us. I glanced in my mirror as the cop exited his car and began walking toward us. This gave me a moment to take in his appearance. Most cops I'd seen around Nevada before didn't wear the traditional police hats – this one did, and it was pulled down all the way to fully cover his hair. He also wore those dark cop shades that you could look in and see your reflection – _not_ the cop's eyes. The policeman wore the standard blue uniform as typical for cops – but that wasn't what struck me as odd. What struck me as odd was the way the guy walked. He walked almost as if he was a lanky cat, and he walked with a stance and danger that gave me a few insights to who he was. After seeing him walk, I knew that the hair under his hat was blonde – ash blonde. After seeing him walk, I knew that the eyes behind those dark sunglasses never stayed a single color for long.

The cop got to our window, and I smiled stonily at him. "Hello, Ash."

~Keller~

The cop got to our window, and I watched as Nissa smiled stonily at him. "Hello, Ash," she said in a voice lacking any and all emotion.

"_Ash_?" I asked incredulously, sticking my head onto the headrest of Nissa's seat. "Ash _Redfern_? What the _hell_ are you doing here? And why on Earth are you impersonating a policeman?"

Annabeth leaned forward and propped her elbows up on the middle row of seats. When I turned back to look at her, her grey eyes that were scarily similar to mine held more confusion than I was feeling at the moment. "OK – this is not working for me." She rested her head on her hands and put on a look of mock curiosity. "And . . . who might you be? Please tell me you're not from –"

"Ash Redfern," that idiot said, tilting down his sunglasses. One second his eyes were lapis lazuli blue, and the next they were neon green. "Lamia – that's a born vampire. Night World." He paused for a moment, and his eyes turned an interesting shade of yellow. "Oh, darn. I've exposed my secret to a human. Now I suppose I have to kill you to keep you from exposing my secret."

Winnie laughed from where she sat next to Grover. "Ash, Annabeth's not _just_ a human! She and her boyfriend Percy are demigods!" I heard an uncomfortable cough from the _very_ back seat and turned to see Drea staring wide-eyed and scared at Ash. Winnie noticed this too, and she waved her hand. "Oh, don't worry! Besides, Nikki probably already knew who and what he was anyway . . ." She paused to turn back to look at the blonde Stats nerd. When she nodded without hesitation, Winnie began talking again. "So no harm was really done! As soon as Nissa said Ash's name, Nikki was able to figure out who she was talking about!"

Ash sighed. "Winnie, just – please – stop talking. I didn't come here for business with you." He turned back to Nissa, and his eyes turned black – black as night, black as coal. "You are a disgrace to vampires everywhere, Nissa Johnson. Hunter already knows that you're a demigod _and_ a vampire. The problem with that is that he can't control you anymore. We need to figure out what to do with you – and dispose of you."

I felt about ready to knock Ash to the ground, but Nissa just laughed calmly. "Oh, Ash. I know you wouldn't do that. Mary-Lynnette told you not to kill anyone else! Heed her advice. I'm part of Night World, Ash. Not even Hunter Redfern can go around unjustly killing people."

From what I could see of Ash's face, he hadn't heard Nissa. He was already pondering something else. "Hold on a second. Why are you taking a couple of Greek freaks and some humans to Vegas? They'll get killed as soon as they get there!"

Now it was my turn to laugh. "Hunter doesn't know _everything_, now does he?" When he didn't respond, I continued speaking. "We're on a mission, Ash – one _you_ don't need to get involved in. We have to get something back to someone in about a week _AND_ face down an entire army of goddess knows what! We don't have time for you to be blocking our path."

Ash shrugged and leaned an elbow against the door of the car. "I don't know, Keller. It seems to me like you do." He glanced down at the nails on his right hand and started examining them. "Hecate's torches need to be returned to her by Halloween." When I opened my mouth to ask how he knew that, he held up a hand to shut me up. "Don't ask me how I know – I have my sources. It doesn't matter _how_ I know – it just matters that I know." Despite all our better judgment, he moved to the middle set of doors and tugged one open. "And I'm going with you. You can't protect a pack of humans and half-humans without someone with a lot of experience."

Once again, I was cut-off before I could start protesting. "Fine, Ash," Nissa sighed. "Just, please do one thing . . . try not to get in our way. I'm a daughter of Ares – and there are no laws in Olympus that state that I can't skewer an annoying vampire. Kapiche?"

Ash rolled his eyes but slid into the car next to me. "OK, Niss. Whatever you say."

For the next few hours, we travelled to Vegas in silence. Nobody slept – then again, nobody wanted to with Ash there – but nobody spoke a word, either.

_What's wrong now, Keller?_ Galen whispered softly in my head. _You seem upset or tense again – but it's worse than it was when we were at the Empire State Building. You _have_ to tell me what's wrong – I need to help you so I can prevent you from almost dying again. _

With his final words, Galen wrapped his arms around me. I looked up into his gold-green eyes. _Just so much stuff is happening_, I answered reluctantly. _Having to go on a quest with people we only know because they're tied to Hecate was bad enough – now, Winnie is soulmates with one of them, we have to look after a pack of AP Stats nerds too, _and_ Ash Redfern butted in to try to save the day! I just don't know how much more of this I can take._

Galen tightened his arms around me and kissed my forehead. _It'll be OK, Keller. I promise. We'll get Hecate's torches to her and win the battle against the enemy gods and goddesses – it'll all turn out OK._

That part, the final part Galen had talked about . . . I just couldn't be too sure of that.

"We're here!" Nissa suddenly said as we pulled into a parking garage. Looking out the car window and through the opening in the parking garage wall, I could see a giant light-up sign declaring that we were at the Excalibur. Something about this quest really did seem too easy – we were already here, and we still had a week!

Nissa parked, and all thirteen of us left the car and walked toward the doors leading into the hotel. As soon as we passed through the door, I heard a gasp from behind us. We all turned to look at the Stats nerds – primarily Nikki. She'd turned as white as a ghost, and her mouth was open in a huge _O_.

"Calypso," we heard her hiss to Drea. At first, the dark-haired girl looked confused. "_Odyssey_," Nikki hissed again. "Odysseus – prisoner." Soon, all the Stats nerds seemed to get it – but Nikki still looked the most terrified.

"What else, Nikki?" Drea asked, looking concerned. "What else is wrong about this place?"

Nikki shut her eyes, and a single tear trickled down her cheek. "Alec Dawson," she whispered.

Drea seemed to understand what she meant, because she gasped. "Nikki – you don't mean . . .?"

"Yes," said the blonde nerd. She opened her eyes, and everyone gasped. They'd turned green – forest green, with no hint that they had once been blue. As we watched, her hair grew to reach the middle of her back – and light brown streaks erupted out of her head. "This is just the beginning. I never thought this would happen, but now I really don't want it to. I'm turning into Misty Spade – daughter of Artemis – from my story."

"That's impossible!" Annabeth suddenly burst out. "Artemis is a maiden – she can't have kids!"

Nikki's hair was now almost totally light brown, with just a single streak of blonde left to go. "In my story she does," was all she said.

"Why does this make you upset, Nikki?" Gage asked the girl, stepping forward and putting a hand awkwardly on her shoulder. "I thought this would be great for you!"

Nikki/Misty turned her green eyes to Drea, and suddenly the other girl understood and gasped. "Oh, no!" Turning to Gage, she said softly: "The guy Alec Dawson she was talking about is modeled after one of her exes. The one that took her to fall homecoming?"

Gage didn't seem to get it, but Perry did. "Cody. Oh, why?"

I wasn't following any of this, and – apparently – neither was Ash. "I don't know what's going on here, and frankly, I just don't care," he growled. "Let's just get where we need to go!"

**OK – so the part about Alec Dawson and Misty Spade **_**is**_** actually from a story I've written. They faced down Calypso, and I incorporated that into this story. I'm still working on it, but go check out my account on (HollywoodLoveGirl) to read that and my other stories!**


	14. Gotta Be Somebody

Chapter 14:

Gotta Be Somebody

~Annabeth~

This entire quest was really starting to weird me out. _Why was Nikki the stats nerd turning into a "daughter of Artemis"? What was going to happen while we stayed at the Excalibur?_ Nikki and the rest of the stats students had said something about Calypso. I'd heard of such a legend before, where Calypso tried to keep Odysseus at her island as her prisoner by seducing him. But what about this guy, Alec Dawson? What was that all about?

"I know what happened to Odysseus," I told Percy, squeezing his hand for support. "She seduced him and made him forget about his wife and son."

Percy squeezed my hand in return and brought it up to his lips to kiss it softly. "Don't worry, Annabeth," he whispered. "I won't let that happen to me."

I sighed and closed my eyes, letting my head rest on his shoulder. It was comforting to know that, no matter how crazy my life or our quests got, Percy was always my constant. We'd been through so much in this past time, and Percy had always been by my side. When I almost fell for the illusion the Sirens showed me, Percy saved me from going overboard. Now, I would save him from falling for Calypso – so he could stay with me.

But how would we find Hecate or Calypso in a place like this?

"Mist- Nik- Mi- Ni- Min- Misty!" a voice suddenly shouted. I opened my eyes and turned toward the source of the voice to find a tall blonde muscly-looking guy rushing toward Drea, Perry, Gage, and Nikki – er, now Misty. "What the Hades is going on?"

I watched Nikki/Misty's face for any sign of sadness, but I found something else there that I hadn't expected: blazing, blinding anger. "Oh, no! If you seriously think I'm gonna fall for this crap again, then you are dead wrong!" Now – as she was totally transformed into a "daughter of Artemis" – Nikki/Misty drew back her hand quickly before bringing it back forward to slap the blonde guy across the face. "Alec – you swore this wouldn't happen again, but you're nothing but a freakin' _liar_! Go back to that tramp Calypso – see if I fricken care!"

"Oh, Alec!" a new female voice called, and I turned the other direction to find a short tan girl with dark brown hair coming our way. When she saw Nikki/Misty, she scowled. "Oh, honey. Stop glaring at me. He's mine now, and he's never coming back to you! Grow up and get over yourself!" The girl – I presumed her to be Calypso – smiled smugly and snottily, making her face look really messed up and disfigured.

Misty stepped forward to face Calypso and smiled just as smugly. "Don't tell me what I do and don't do and what I think or don't think. _You _need to grow up and get over _your_self!" With that Misty threw a punch at Calypso that collided with the girl's jaw. The tan girl staggered backward for a second before spinning on her heels and dragging blonde guy Alec with her.

I was still confused as to what had just gone on, and – apparently – so was the newcomer, Ash. "This has been entertaining – really. Actually, that was about five minutes of my life that I'll probably never get back. Can we just keep looking for Hecate so we can get this over with?"

I started to open my mouth to answer that that would be the best idea when Nikki spoke up – looking very much like herself again. "Yeah. That went well – better than I expected! Let's go!"

"All this came because a bunch of Night People tried to enter the top of the Empire State Building when the wrong concierge was at the desk," I muttered under my breath to Percy as we lagged behind the rest of the group. "If the gods had never called us up to Olympus in the first place, then none of this would've happened!"

"Come on, Annabeth!" Percy said excitedly. "We're almost at the end of our quest, and then we can go back to Camp Half-Blood and pretend that this never happened."

Again, I wasn't so sure of that.

~Nissa~

The scene that had just played out before us between the AP Statistics nerds and the blonde guy didn't in the least bit faze me from our true mission. I knew we had to find Hecate to return her torches to her, and I trusted Iliana's guidance that Hecate was hiding out here – inside the Excalibur hotel and casino in Las Vegas. We had about a week left, meaning that we had plenty of time to find Hecate _and_ prevent a war of the gods.

So why did I have the feeling that we didn't actually have all that time?

"There's gotta be somebody around here that knows what we need to do," Keller mumbled from behind me. I could tell that she only meant for Galen to hear her, so I kept walking and pretended like I had no idea that she'd just spoken.

But, while we walked through the hotel, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, or . . . or that something was missing. Looking over my shoulder, I noticed – almost absently – all the couples that had somehow originated out of our little group. Keller and Galen were, of course, soulmates – that was a given. But then there was Percy and Annabeth, Grover and Winnie, Perry and Drea, and Gage and Nikki. Even Ash had someone – even if Mary-Lynnette wasn't with him right now. That left Iliana and I without soulmates. I know I was a member of Circle Daybreak, and most of the Daybreakers had soulmates. The idea behind the soulmate principle was that there was someone out there in the world for everyone – well, mainly concerning those from the Night World – and all you had to do was find that person to make your life complete.

But I'd been nearly everywhere, and I hadn't ever found someone. Was it possible that there was no one for me out there?

_Nobody wants to be the last one there, and everyone wants to feel like someone cares_, the music played out around the casino. _They have no idea how right they are_, I thought to myself.

"Nobody wants to go in on their own, and everyone wants to know they're not alone. There's somebody else that feels the same somewhere, there's gotta be somebody for me out there," the statistics nerds sang along. The band singing the song probably had no idea that the Night World even existed – as per usual for humans – but the idea behind the lyrics was the exact same as the idea behind the soulmate principle.

"Do you have any idea where Hecate might be?" I asked Iliana, trying to keep my thoughts away from boys.

Iliana, who was walking just a few steps behind me, shrugged. "I'm not sure. When she sent me the vision, the main part of it was about that nasty war that she said we'd have to fight against the gods. I don't remember anything about where she was."

I opened my mouth to say something back to Iliana when a poster caught my eye. As suspected, the poster was advertising for a Vegas Showgirl thing in the Castle. However, what wasn't suspected was that this one was the "Wicked Show." The picture depicted the showgirls prancing around the stage in their revealing costumes, but one of them stood out in particular. One of the girls had black hair, and – upon first glance – anybody from the Night World would think that this was Maya. The camera had just snapped her picture in the middle of her eyes changing color, so one eye was neon green while the other was a deep amethyst. "I think I just found Hecate," I muttered, smiling to myself at my accomplishment.

"What?" Keller asked, suddenly tuning in to what I was saying. "Where?"

Still smiling slightly, I pointed on the poster to the girl with the black hair and different colored eyes.

As I watched her own expression, Keller's eyes grew wide. "Yep, that's Hecate!" Then, she turned to everyone else and grinned. "Galen! Everyone! We found Hecate!" Suddenly, she turned back to look at the poster. Her shoulders slumped, and her expression turned crestfallen. "Wow, Nissa. We found Hecate. But how are we supposed to get into that show to catch her and get her torches back to her?"

Before answering Keller, I turned my head to look at Iliana. I could almost see the wheels turning inside her head, and she grinned widely. At this point, she looked really excited. _Oh no_, I thought to myself. I hated this idea so much that I gave myself a face-palm. _There is _no _way that I will get roped into doing this_.

"We can dress up like Vegas Showgirls from the show and get onstage! Follow her off the stage after the show, and then we'll be able to give her back her torches!" Iliana said excitedly.

Unexpectedly, Annabeth stepped forward. Her hand was on her chin, and she looked like she was deep in thought about something. "You know," she began, "this doesn't sound like such a bad idea. All the girls could do it, and the guys could be in the audience – just so that no one suspects that we're not part of the show. Iliana." The daughter of Athena paused, stepping forward even more until she was within punching distance. "That is a brilliant idea!"

"No it's not!" I protested.

Winnie, who had been walking back with Grover, grinned. "Oh, come on, Niss! It'll be fun! Plus," she paused for a moment, losing her grin a bit and pointing to Keller's suitcase – the very suitcase that held Hecate's twin torches, "there's gotta be somebody willing to get Hecate's torches back to her before Halloween."

Realizing that I had been defeated, I sighed and rolled my eyes. "OK. I guess I have to go along with this idea." Iliana uttered a silent cheer – one that she quickly stifled when I turned my disapproving glare her way.

"When is it?" Annabeth asked. "It'd be nice to know when we have to do this so we can plan on how to sneak by security backstage."

I turned to look back at the poster, Iliana beat me to it. "Two nights from now!" she said cheerily. "We can get our hair done and do our make-up really pretty . . . oh, this is going to be so much fun!" The little ball of fluff that was the daughter of Hecate seemed to radiate an ecstatic, exciting light.

"Oodles," I groaned under my breath.

**So, I decided to name this chapter after my favorite Nickelback song. The phrase is used multiple times throughout the story, so that's how it ties in. R&R! :)**


	15. Showgirl Showdown

Chapter 15:

Showgirl Showdown

~Keller~

When it came to this part of the mission, I was about as enthusiastic about it as Nissa was. I'd always worn my 'shifter skin jumpsuit, so I was a little worried to take it off and put on something so revealing – even if it was to prevent (or at least lessen the impact) of a huge war of "the gods." I imagined the guys would like the show, but Nissa and I came to the consensus that this show would humiliate us.

After Iliana was able to get us in, she worked furiously to get us all ready for the show. Somehow, she was able to get our costumes and headpieces ahead of time – even someone to come into our hotel rooms to help us with our hair and make-up. Yay.

"OK – everyone in their costumes?" Iliana called from the hallway. A collective "yeah" was heard through the hall, and Iliana pulled everyone into my room for hair and make-up. Seeing all of us dressed up, she grinned and clasped her hands together. "Oh, we all look great!"

"Great" wasn't really the word Nissa and I were thinking of. I looked over at her, and she looked extremely uncomfortable in what looked like a one-piece swimsuit with ruffles everywhere. Her costume was covered in sequins, and it was silvery black with white trim. Everyone's costumes looked like Nissa's: "Attack of the Ruffles" silvery black one-piece swimsuits with white trim. Looking at us all, however, it was comforting to see that Nissa and I weren't the only ones feeling uncomfortable. Drea looked about as uncomfortable as Nissa and I felt – if not more.

"Uh, Iliana?" I asked the excited girl in front of us. "Have the Vegas Showgirls ever heard of a magical invention called pants? They cover your legs and make people feel more comfortable!"

Iliana huffed and turned around to grab her bag of horrors: namely a bag of make-up, hair implements, and the deadliest tool of all: hairspray. "Oh, whatever, Keller! Just have some fun!" With a huge grin, she pulled Nissa into my bathroom.

About four hours later, all seven of us made our way to the show. The guys had agreed to go down at a different time so it didn't look conspicuous that we weren't actually in the show. People moved aside for us and let us ride in our own elevator, and – while the whole concept of this just thrilled Iliana – that made me feel completely and utterly isolated.

"Why'd you agree with her?" Nissa groaned. She was looking at Annabeth, and I could almost see fire blazing in her eyes. "This is the most humiliating thing I have _ever_ done! I would've expected it from a daughter of Aphrodite – _not _from a daughter of Athena! You're supposed to be better than that!"

Annabeth sifted uncomfortably and tugged nervously on the feathery tail that Iliana had surprised us all with by attaching them to the backs of our costumes. "I didn't know all the conditions it entailed!" When I glared at her for her unintended pun, she looked down at the ground. "Sorry. All I was trying to do was look into the strategy side of it! Hecate was on the poster, so she'll be here – it's the perfect time to get her the torches! "I just didn't know that meant we had to wear these . . ." She gestured at our costumes and grimaced.

"Oh, come on!" Iliana protested. "We'll be able to get the torches back to my mom, but we'll also have fun in the process!"

"I think we need to help you understand the definition of 'fun,'" Nikki said quietly.

"This could be fun!" Everyone turned to look at Winnie, who was moving around and making the ruffles on her costume fly around. When she looked up and met everyone's eyes, she shrugged. "What? I just think it'll be cool to dance on a stage with the queen of witches herself!"

Something clicked in my head, and I turned sideways to look at Annabeth and smile slyly. "Or _duel_ on a stage with the queen of witches herself."

Annabeth seemed to like what I was thinking, because a smile that mirrored mine soon spread across her face. "Huh. I like it." She suddenly seemed to catch an idea, because her grin and eyes grew wide. "I like it a lot!"

Our ideas seemed to click with Iliana, and _her_ eyes grew wide. "Oh, no! We are _not_ going to ruin this show!"

As a rare occurrence, Annabeth and I said simultaneously: "Not ruin it. Make it better!"

~Annabeth~

Keller and I were thinking on the same track – for once – and we had this in the bag! As long as Iliana and Winnie didn't freak out, this was going to be a production of the "Wicked Show" that the people at the Excalibur would never forget!

But, of course, Iliana had to protest.

"No, no, no, and a thousand times no!" she whined as we approached the entrance to backstage. "I will _not_ let you do this! I can't! This is supposed to be perfect – it's the Vegas Showgirls! They don't duel!"

"They do if there's a Showgirl Showdown," Andrea muttered under her breath, self-consciously tugging on the edge of her costume. Nikki shot her a "look" telling her to be quiet, but I turned to grin at Keller.

"That's exactly what we'll turn it into!" I said excitedly. "The show is already called the 'Wicked Show,' so why not the 'Wicked Showgirl Showdown'? It'd be the perfect thing to do!"

Iliana sighed. "I shouldn't let you do this. This could ruin the reputation of the Vegas Showgirls. This could end very badly . . ."

I knew as well as anyone else there that, as far as this part of the mission was concerned; Keller, Nissa, and I were all on the same page. We all wanted to battle against the goddess and see how it would turn out – Keller and I especially. And, whether or not Winnie wanted to admit it, I was halfway convinced that she wanted to, as well. "Or, we could prevent a war of the gods and it could turn out great," I put in. "Would you rather put all our lives in danger of possibly getting killed at your mother's hand, or have one production of the Vegas showgirl's 'Wicked Show' be more exciting than the rest? Because I seriously believe that the latter is the better option."

Iliana sighed dramatically. How could Keller and Nissa honestly put up with this girl? "Oh, fine!" she grumbled, rolling her eyes. "Just make sure you only aim to fight Hecate. The rest of the showgirls don't have to get hurt too!"

Keller grinned mischievously, and I was just about to question what she meant when she said: "Do what you did with Azhdeha. Unleash the blue fire, and everything should be fine." Iliana opened her mouth to speak, but Keller held up a hand to silence her and continued talking. "Once she sees you use the blue fire, she will see that you are a Wild Power and the Witch Child. You are also her daughter – she can't really ignore her daughter!"

"Yes she can," I said sadly, rubbing my temples. When everyone turned to look at me and question my words, I sighed and resolved to elaborate. "A year or so back, the gods decided to drop all communication with their children – except to claim them when they entered camp. Romans and Greeks had to work together with the gods to defeat the giants created by Gaea and save the world from a war even more perilous and dangerous than the Titan War – which, coincidentally, Percy and I fought in the second one. My point is that the gods can – and do – ignore their children. It's just how it is."

Keller seemed speechless, but Nissa was able to stay calm and collected – despite the fact that we all (Nissa and myself included) looked absolutely ridiculous in these showgirl costumes. "Just go with this, Iliana," she said – but not with her usual energy. "The faster we can get this over with, the better it all will be."

"What the hell is wrong with her?" Keller asked me as we readied ourselves to enter backstage. "She never acts so down in the dumps!"

"Hades if I know," I mumbled under my breath. However, I silently resolved to question Nissa about this after the show was over. Keller was absolutely right – when it came to battles especially, Nissa always faced it readily. Something was seriously wrong.

"Wha–? Where have you been?" a woman with red hair twisted back into a ponytail asked us as we walked through the door. She wore a cadet blue suit and looked like she could've been a lawyer. "I've been looking for you for over a half hour! Get onstage – the show starts in five minutes!"

"Yes, Mrs. Gallmer!" Iliana said, saluting the lawyer woman as if she was a military soldier speaking to the sergeant, or whatever it was called. Turning back to us, she ordered: "Come on! We need to get out there now! The show's about to start!"

I smiled to myself and tucked a loose piece of hair behind my ear. _We should_, I thought. _We should go get onstage. This will be a show these people will _definitely _never forget_.

The curtain was brought up, and the show began. We followed the lead of the other showgirls so as not to look out of place, but we still felt it _immensely_ – all the other girls looked so confident in their costumes, and we all looked like we wanted to crawl under rocks and die.

Glancing over at Keller, I noticed her watching one showgirl in particular. As I followed her gaze, I noticed that the showgirl Keller was watching had jet black hair – just like Keller – and eyes that couldn't stay one color for a long amount of time – just like that newcomer vampire, Ash. As the showgirls separated off into two separate groups, Keller turned to me to grin slyly and threw her headdress into the audience. "And now," she announced, stepping forward so all the audience could see and hear her, "in the spirit of the 'Wicked Show,' we are proud to announce a special part of tonight's show: the magical duel: 'Showgirl Showdown'!"

The audience cheered loudly, and all showgirls but us and the supposed Hecate scattered and ran backstage – well, Nikki and Andrea stayed onstage, but they stayed off to the side. Hecate, in turn, stepped forward and looked at Iliana sadly. "Iliana," she said softly so that only we could hear. "My daughter. Please don't do this."

Shocking us all, Iliana stepped forward and threw her feathery headdress onto the ground – letting her super blonde, corn silk hair flow free. "We have to," she answered, smiling.

That gave us all the intro we needed.

Silently, I muttered the incantation Chiron had taught Thalia, Luke, and I for conjuring the Mist. The less everyone in the audience saw, the better.

From next to me, a cascade of feathers, sparkly fabric, and sequins fluttered to the ground as Keller leapt forward and transformed into a panther. She growled and flattened her ears against her head, baring her teeth to the goddess of the witches.

"I am a witch and the daughter of _the_ witch. Your hand – Hecate's hand – is my hand now." Iliana spoke the words so forcefully that I wasn't sure at first if it was actually her. When orange fire crackled between her hands – and, I noticed absently, Winnie's hands – her voice grew more forceful and powerful as she began to project and shout. "_Mine is the power of the ages!_" With those screamed words, the fire in Iliana's hands turned bright blue.

"No!" Hecate screamed back in protest. "No, daughter! This is not as this quest has been foretold!"

"I don't care!" I screamed, shaking my head free of the annoying flock of feathers and snatching my dagger out of my boot sheath. "No prophecy can tell me about this! Fight us off, you cowardly witch! Do it!"

"Alright," the goddess said with a note of finality, purple sparks flickering between her fingers. "If that's the way you want to play it, daughter of Athena, then let the games begin!" With a sweep of her hand, Hecate sent a wave of purple fire my way . . .

. . . Which was easily deflected by a flash of orange fire from her daughter and Winnie. From the smoke left by the fire, Keller leapt forward and lashed out at the witch goddess with her claws. Being that they were fully outstretched, they left a few nasty gashes on the goddess' cheek. The force of the panther colliding with her knocked her back a few steps, but the goddess remained on her feet.

"A shape-shifter, Iliana?" the goddess asked her daughter, obviously impressed. "And another witch, a vampire, _and_ another demigod? I praise you, daughter." With that, the goddess threw a ball of purple flames at Iliana.

Nissa was suddenly in front of Iliana, batting the fireball back at the goddess with her ironwood fighting stick. "Now I understand why my dad doesn't hate you!" She paused for a moment, lowering her fighting stick so she could properly face the goddess. "You're a fair fighter."

Hecate smiled slightly and lifted her hands above her head and let purple sparks fly between her hands. "Ah, daughter of Ares. But you are also of the Night World – you are the vampire. Are you sure that this is not why you have allegiance to me?"

Keller jumped forward again and slashed at the goddess' arm. Hecate easily deflected the blow and sent Keller sprawling. After seeing this, Nissa leapt forward and landed in front of Hecate, pointing the tip of the fighting stick at the goddess' throat. "Oh, I'm positive."

With that, the audience got to their feet and cheered. While no one was looking, I muttered a few words to lift the Mist. Nissa put her fighting stick away, and I noticed absently that Keller had sprung behind the curtain and was running backstage – without her showgirl costume on. I suddenly realized what that meant the Mist must've let all the men in the audience see after Keller changed, and I face-palmed. Regaining my composure, I turned toward the audience like Hecate was doing and bowed. After the crowd had had their fill of applauding, we were ushered backstage by Hecate.

"What was that little stunt you pulled out there?" the goddess asked once we were all backstage.

Keller, having gotten her black jumpsuit and boots back on, stepped forward to answer Hecate. "We wanted to know what it was like to fight _the_ witch," she answered honestly. "And we thought that such a fight as that would excite the audience. And," she paused momentarily, leaning against a wall separating the main backstage area from the dressing rooms, "we needed to let you know that we were here without arousing suspicion as to why a bunch of magical misfits would try to 'assault' [she put air quotes around the word] a Vegas Showgirl."

Hecate nodded and glanced at me. "Annabeth Chase. I trust you lowered the Mist prior to this little . . . entanglement?"

I nodded, but kept a poker face. When I glanced out of the corner of my eye at Keller, Hecate followed my gaze and realized what I meant. The goddess sighed. "Of course." Her eyes turned from a dark shade of purple to almost bright white. "Men and their lust – and the Mist will obey them." Casting that thought aside, the goddess shook her black hair free of the pins and clips that held it up – and of the annoying feathery headpiece. "Well, I suppose I know why you are here. Do you bring news from Olympus?"

Iliana grinned and emerged with the twin torches. "We have brought these back to you, mother!"

Hecate's eyes grew wide with terror, and they turned an awful shade of crimson flecked with black. "No," she whispered, backing up into a pillar and wrapping her arms around it as if it would hold her steady on her feet. "No, no, no! How could you do this? This has put you all in danger!"

"Hey, Keller," Galen greeted his girlfriend as the guys emerged backstage. When he saw the panic-stricken look on Hecate's face and the confusion on Keller's, he moved over to her and squeezed her hand. "Keller? What's wrong?"

Hecate shut her eyes and sank to the floor, holding her face in her hands. "No, no, no!" she repeated, sounding crestfallen. "This is awful! Now the entire world is in danger!"

"Hold on," Percy cut in. I was glad that Percy decided to speak up, because this was really starting to confuse me. "The gods told us that we had to find your torches and get them back to you before Halloween if we didn't want to have ghosts and spirits unleashed into the mortal world. Is it worse than that?"

Hecate looked up at us all, resting her chin on her knees. I had to stifle the urge to run screaming from backstage, because her eyes were the steely bronze color of a hydra – they even had the reptilian-style split pupils. "Oh, it's even worse than you think, son of Poseidon. I had a deal with another goddess, and we agreed that she could take my torches and use them for her own desires _until_ Halloween. If she finds out that you got the torches back to me before the deadline, she'll go ballistic and cause a huge war of the gods!"

"Wait!" Nissa suddenly burst out, glancing from Iliana – who now wore a startled expression on her face – to Hecate. "Which goddess did you make the deal with exactly?"

Nissa and Iliana both seemed to know what the goddess would say before she said it, but I was held in a state of suspense. Hecate closed her eyes for a few moments before opening them to reveal human eyes the unnatural blue color of lapis lazuli. "Nemesis."


	16. Revenge is Sweet

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Chapter 16:

Revenge is Sweet

~Nissa~

I knew what the goddess would say even as she spoke – so did Iliana. Suddenly, my sadness over not having a soulmate evaporated into nothingness. Just that single word – the name "Nemesis" – escaping the goddess' mouth was enough to make me turn all my attention onto the task at hand. "The goddess of revenge," I muttered, elbowing Iliana gently. "Of course."

"Wait, what?" Keller asked. Her voice sounded like she was panicking – and I couldn't blame her. She'd never really been in too many situations before where she had no idea what was going on. Most of the stuff we did dealt with the Night World – and that was her whole life, everything she knew.

"Nemesis is the goddess of revenge in Greek mythology, boss," I explained hesitantly, noticing Annabeth glaring at me as I called Keller "boss." "She's pretty much the best at manipulating everybody to make them do anything. She probably made a faulty deal with Hecate and then twisted it around to make it so that she got control of the torches. She would want to use the torches to command the spirits to take revenge on the humans that still wander on Earth. Nemesis is _not_ someone you wanna mess with – and _definitely_ not someone you want to bargain with." I glanced at Hecate for confirmation, and the goddess nodded.

"You guessed everything correctly, daughter of Ares," the goddess responded sadly, the blue of her eyes deepening and darkening to midnight blue – almost black. "Nemesis is not one to bargain with or bother – but even the gods can be tricked to such awful deeds. Nemesis did just that – tricked me. She took my torches and commanded me not to order anyone to go on a quest to find them for me – she threatened a –"

"War of the gods," I finished. "We know." When everyone turned to look at us, I shrugged and struggled to maintain my calm and cool composure. "Iliana had a vision and told us about it. I remembered it and figured that it connected in some way."

"Well, you were right," Winnie suddenly chimed in, scratching at a patch of skin on her shoulder becoming irritated by the sequins on her costume. "So now we need to prepare for that. But first, can we get out of these awful outfits? They're so itchy!"

Winnie didn't have to ask twice. In less than ten minutes, all thirteen of us – including the guys – were backstage, talking strategy with the goddess of witches.

"You were right," Ash muttered under his breath, eyeing the goddess with eyes that switched quickly from lime green to heather grey. "She does look like Maya. Everything about her looks like Maya." He turned to Keller and I, looking a little confused. "Are you sure Hannah and Thierry killed Maya? Are you sure this isn't her?"

I was about to answer him when Keller began speaking. "It's cool, Ash – I thought the same thing the first time I met her in a dream. This is Hecate, not Maya."

Seeming satisfied, Ash shut up.

"OK," I began, leaning forward slightly and clasping my hands together. "We need a strategy for battling the gods when the moment comes that Nemesis finds out that we brought Hecate back her torches. First off . . . why did Nemesis do this in the first place?"

"There's no cabin for children of Nemesis at Camp Half Blood," Annabeth answered. We all turned to look at her, and she decided to elaborate. "After the Titan War, Percy suggested that Chiron open up the camp to children of _all_ gods and goddesses – not just the Olympians. However, I never saw the construction of a Nemesis cabin. Maybe that's why she's upset. Oh, great."

She ended her explanation a little strangely, but I knew exactly what she meant. "She's going to gather all her demigod children and rally them to her side in the battle," I finished for her. Annabeth nodded. "Oh, great."

"But when will she figure out that we took back the torches?" Percy asked skeptically.

It was at that moment that I wished Annabeth's boyfriend would fall off the face of the earth. The floor suddenly lurched, and one of the slot machine attendants came screaming and running toward us. "_Earthquake_!" he shrieked as he ran past us. But I knew better. In a moment, the ground was splitting open, and all the mortals in this area of the casino grabbed their coin buckets, beer bottles, martini glasses, and cigarettes and ran. We were now the only ones witnessing the event, and I watched – wide-eyed – as a battle arena appeared in place of the food and beer-stained casino carpet. From a set of double golden gates at the edge of the arena, I noticed a group gathering and heard the sound of at least a million beings trying to talk at once.

"_SILENCE_!" a female voice bellowed, and all other voices ceased. Through the gates emerged a woman with long, wavy chestnut-colored hair. Her eyes blazed emerald green with envy, and I could tell at once that this was her – Nemesis, goddess of revenge. "Ah, Hecate. I knew you wouldn't be able to uphold your end of the agreement."

The goddess of witches stepped forward, her eyes turning an almost amethyst shade of purple. "That's where you're wrong, Nemesis. It was not I who instructed these children to recover my torches. Olympus did not hold to their word – they sent someone out after my torches as soon as they found out."

"And there lies the problem," the revenge goddess answered. I noticed then that she was carrying a sword with an emerald-encrusted hilt and playfully balancing the blade and tossing it into the air with her right hand. "Olympus is always the problem, isn't it? They want to protect _you_ and your powers. You're not even an Olympian! And why do you have a cabin at Camp Half Blood? That cabin should be _MINE_!"

"Told you," Annabeth hissed under her breath. She was my friend, but I felt like slapping her.

"And that's what this is all about?" Keller suddenly burst out. "All just because the place at the top of the Empire State Building and the people there won't support you? And because you don't have a freakin' cabin at the camp that all the Greek freaks come from? This is so stupid! You're a _goddess_! Did you ever consider that _that's_ why you don't get extra protection? Hecate has two sides to deal with – the Greek side _and_ the Night World side!"

I noticed the goddess looking at Keller with an almost admiring look to her eyes. "If you were a demigod, you would be my daughter." Then, Nemesis turned back to Hecate. "I can't believe everyone thinks you have _so_ much weight on your shoulders! I have to deal with the problems of every single war! Especially in the Middle East! If the war was started over revenge or hatred, it's my show. With all the stuff _I_ deal with, why doesn't Olympus give _me_ some aid?"

"Maybe that's because my father always picks up your slack!" I bellowed at the goddess. I was trying to keep my cool – I really was – but I just lost it. "My father is the _god of war_! He is the controller of all things war-related! You only help fuel the anger used for revenge-started wars! My father uses the battle strategies _he_ is famous for in wartime!"

Nemesis turned her glare on me, and Hecate also turned her attention my way. Her eyes had turned ice blue to the point where they looked white, and the expression on her face was steeped in fear. What I'd just done was extremely dangerous – no one was supposed to be able to talk back to a god or goddess and get away with it. Percy had done it once with my father – I knew that much – and had almost been killed over it. It was even more dangerous to act in that fashion toward the goddess of revenge. Even if she wasn't an Olympian. With a sudden flash of the emeralds on her sword, a powerful wave of anger and hatred came crashing into me, knocking me to my knees. Right before I blanked out entirely, I saw the anger in Nemesis' eyes as she looked down at me and said: "Revenge is sweet."


	17. The Battle in the Excalibur

Chapter 17:

The Battle in the Excalibur

~Keller~

Seeing Nissa taken out within seconds by the goddess of revenge was, in a word . . . Scary. The vampire in my team was tough as nails – NOTHING could take her out. She was a master of weapons, and she could kill nearly every kind of rogue Night Person. When Azhdeha had taken me out, Nissa had been OK. Because nothing was too much for the tough-as-nails vampire on my team.

Nothing.

"I _fought_ Ares," Percy hissed from somewhere off to my right. I would've turned in his direction to examine his expression, but my eyes were glued to the revenge goddess with my hatred. "Ares is a tougher god than you could _ever_ be! I have NO problem throwing down against you."

"But Percy," the goddess cooed, bending down to his level. I was finally able to turn my head, and I turned a fierce look in Percy's direction. His wall of toughness was crumbling – I could see that in his eyes. I looked at the goddess, and I noticed her features starting to change. While her body stayed the same, her face turned to look like a totally different person – one that Percy seemed to recognize. While I watched him gasp like a fish out of water, Nemesis continued. "While you were fighting Ares, you left me abandoned in the Underworld with Hades. I could've died, Percy."

"B-but Mom," Percy stammered, seemingly transfixed on the face in front of him, "I did save you. I had to fight Ares so I _could_ save you!"

"Percy!" Annabeth and I screamed at the same time. I gave her my best "death glare," and she closed her mouth. "That is not your mom! That is Nemesis! She just could've killed Nissa – you know, Ares' daughter?"

Percy seemed to snap out of it, but – just for reinforcement – I gave her a "look" that told her to slap her boyfriend in the face. She did, and he clicked his pen, his sword springing to life.

I took this as the initiative. I gathered my strength and sprung, morphing in midair. Glancing to the side, I saw Galen following suit. He landed atop the goddess' head, causing her to again rise to her full height in an effort to throw the leopard off. But my soulmate held fast, not letting the goddess throw him off like a bucking horse.

_Hold on, Galen!_ I thought to him as I landed at the goddess' feet. _Keep her distracted!_

_I'm doing the best I can, Keller_, he thought back to me. _But she's a Greek goddess. She has powers beyond any witch's dizziest dreams. I'd like to say I'm fine, but I'm not too sure how much longer I can hold on. I need Iliana and Winnie to put their powers together to help me, because I can't fight Nemesis alone._

_I'll do what I can!_ I answered quickly. I couldn't let Galen get killed. I leapt over to where my comrades were standing and growled deep in my throat.

"What is she saying?" Iliana asked Winnie. "I'm sorry, but I don't speak panther."

"She wants us to help Galen!" Winnie explained hurriedly. "He can't hang on much longer by distracting Nemesis on his own. We have to combine our powers to help him!"

Winnie and Iliana rushed forward. In Winnie's hands, she held a gleaming ball of orange fire that grew bigger and bigger as she continued to charge forward. Between the fingers of Iliana's right hand, a blinding ball of her whitish-blue Wild Power fire blazed with immense power. Both of the witches in my Circle Daybreak team were about to unleash the full fury of their flames when two voices cried out in unison, making them stop dead in their tracks.

"NO!"

I perked up an ear and turned toward the source of the first voice. Grover stood off to the side – his goat legs shaking, wobbling, and knocking together from fear – while he waved his hands in front of him. "Winnie! I can't let you do this! I don't want you to die, too!"

"But I have to, Grover!" the strawberry blonde ball of burning fire yelled as her flames nearly engulfed her. "I have to save Galen and defeat her!"

"You cannot defeat a god!" Nemesis and Hecate said loudly. For Nemesis, the words were spoken with power, anger, and authority – the words were almost bellowed. For Hecate, however, the words were spoken defeatedly, frighteningly, and sadly – the words were almost screamed. I realized that Hecate had been the other voice to protest with Grover, so I listened as the goddess tried to explain. "It's no use. She'll kill you all before you can defeat her."

"Maybe you're forgetting what I said," I heard Percy retort through clenched teeth. I turned in his direction, and my highly-sensitive panther ears could pretty much hear the nervous, anxious sweat dripping down his arm and off the tip of his sword. "I. Fought. Ares. I made the god of war – _THE_ Greek god of war – _bleed_. Gods can bleed. They can be chopped up into little pieces just like my father and his brothers did to their father – Kronos. They can be defeated!"

The fish-boy Greek freak was beginning to talk crazy. Rather than continuing to focus on Nemesis, I leapt forward – changing halfway in mid leap – to tackle the son of Poseidon to the ground.

"You idiot!" I screamed, sinking the claws I still possessed deep into his shirt, just barely nicking his shoulder. "When Hecate says something, she knows it to be true! Maybe we can't fully defeat this revenge goddess! Maybe the fact that I agreed to let my team accompany you on this quest was a stupid idea! But I'm not going to let an airhead like you be killed while trying to accomplish the impossible!"

"Keller, he did make Ares bleed!" Annabeth cut in, grabbing me by my jumpsuit and yanking me off of Percy. "I know because I saw it happen! We _can_ defeat Nemesis, and we _WILL_! With or without your help!"

_Keller . . . _a weak voice suddenly whimpered inside my head. I struggled out of Annabeth's grasp and turned toward the source of the voice. Galen lay – in his halfway form – crumpled at the edge of the gates. I wanted to run to him, to make sure he was OK . . .

But a certain annoying someone held me back.

"Keller! Get a hold of yourself!" Ash commanded as he locked my arms behind my back. I turned to glance at his face, and I noticed that his eyes were a color I'd never seen them take on before – golden honey yellow. "Galen is gone."

"F off, Ash!" I screamed, slicing his wrist and letting his lamia blood flow freely. As he yelped in pain, I tore free and ran towards Galen.

"That's right," a voice cooed behind me, and I recognized it as the voice of the revenge goddess. I didn't turn, I just kept running. "Go help your friend." The goddess paused in her speech, and – in a matter of a few strides – she was stationed in front of me, blocking my path to Galen. "Yeah, go help your friend . . . the one that you're about to join!" With a flick of her wrist, the goddess sent me tumbling through the air, where I landed in a heap next to Galen.

"Keller," he whispered. I felt him lightly brush his hand against my face, and then he was turning towards me in fear, looking me over for wounds. "Oh, my goddess, Keller! Are you OK?"

"Galen," I had time to whisper. I attempted to sit up and reach for him, but I tumbled forward as everything blacked out.

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	18. The Battle Continues And Ends

Chapter 18:

The Battle Continues . . . And Ends

~Annabeth~

I didn't particularly like yelling at Keller. She was trying to do everything she could to protect us. But she was being irrational . . . but I know I was, too. The magic of the revenge goddess was thick in the air, and I could almost see it as a tangible object as it turned us against each other, one by one. The Stats kids we'd met at Starbucks weren't exactly being affected by it – at least, not that I could see. It may have been because Hecate was protecting them, but I had no idea. All I know is that Nissa was down in one corner of this Greek arena, while Galen was barely alive but still able to try to tend to Keller.

I glanced over at Percy to see how he was faring after Nemesis showed herself to him as his mother. He was facing the ground, Riptide's tip sinking into the ground of the arena. There was a stain of blood forming on his shoulder from where Keller had scratched him with her panther claws. He didn't look like he'd be able to do anything – like he wouldn't be able to help us at all. All because Nemesis showed herself to him in the form of his mother – the worst thing that could ever happen.

The odds were not looking good for us.

"Daughter of Athena," the revenge goddess cooed, trying to suck me into the same trap she'd sucked my boyfriend into. "What could I do for you . . ."

I was just about to burst out crying – Nemesis had taken on the face of Luke and was speaking in his voice – when the arrogant vampire stepped forward. He passed me and ushered me to get behind him. As he passed, I saw his eyes were silver with metallic onyx pinpoints scattered throughout the irises. "Hmmmmm," he wondered aloud. "I wonder what the blood of a god tastes like?"

_What are you _talking_ about? _I thought. This guy was talking crazy – there was no way this freak of a vampire could get up close enough to suck the blood of the goddess. He was going to be squashed like a bug. "I guess Keller was right," I muttered under my breath. "This guy has absolutely NO common sense."

"I can hear you, you know," he remarked snarkily back to me, baring his fangs evilly. He turned back to the goddess a split second later, and I watched from behind as his cheeks stretched out. I could only imagine the sneer he was giving the goddess of revenge. "Winnie, Iliana – blast her. Get her knocked down. Goatboy, Fishboy with the mommy issues – keep her knocked down. Miss Snark," he turned slightly while still keeping his eyes on the goddess. I could tell he was indicating me, so I rolled my eyes. "Do something to get her neck so it's exposed to me. Easier to go in for a bite that way – less messy."

"You'll die trying, idiot!" Grover protested. Percy and I turned toward our satyr to give him twin _What the Hades?_ looks, so he decided to elaborate. "That idiot vampire thinks he can get away with sucking the blood of a god. A powerful god_dess_, nonetheless. Percy cut Ares. The war god. I get that. But this guy can_not_ suck the blood of a goddess!"

"Watch me," Ash growled. "Winnie! Iliana! Go!"

I turned my head and facepalmed to myself before turning and running to my station.

~Galen~

I didn't know how much longer I could hold out. My injuries were bad, but Keller was so much worse. I could feel my soulmate's life fading – fast. Even worse than with Azhdeha.

"Galen," she whispered, only I don't think she even knew she was talking to me.

"Shh, Keller," I whispered back to her, stroking her blood-matted hair back from her face. "Shh, Keller, I'm here. I'm right here." I leaned down to lightly touch my lips to her forehead, almost seeing the silver chord connecting us as soulmates become visible. It strummed between us, and a single tear rolled down my cheek before landing on Keller's hand.

"Gale-" she coughed, choking on the end of the word. Her eyes suddenly flew open and danced around for a second before they fell on my face. "Galen!" she suddenly burst out. "We have to help them fight!" She tried to sit up, but with no success – I could see the pain in her eyes as she strained her back trying to sit up.

"No, Keller," I told her gently, resting my hand on her arm. "You're weak as it is, and I have to stay here and protect you."

"But, Galen –" Keller protested.

"_I will not let you die!_" I said, quietly but forcefully. Just to make sure she got the message, I sent it to her mentally, as well. Sighing, I moved my hands to Keller's shoulders. "I've thought countless times that I've lost you, Raksha Keller. I don't want to feel that way again."

She scowled at me and, realizing that her moment of unconsciousness had caused her to revert back to her human form, changed into her half-and-half form so she could bare her teeth at me. "If you _really_ didn't want to, you know you wouldn't call me that." Despite the pain in her back, she sat up and winced. "I hate being called Raksha more than I hate not being able to fight – you, of all people, _know_ that, Galen!" Trying desperately to stop her, I was forced backwards as Keller stood. She stumbled a bit, but she was somehow able to keep her footing.

"Hold on, Keller," I said, standing up next to my soulmate. I knew my voice sounded like I was going to continue protesting – but that was not the case. Keller opened her mouth in an attempt to protest again, but I held out a hand to stop and silence her. "If you're going to fight, I will fight by your side." Laughing a little, I added silently: _I mean, c'mon – what are soulmates for?_

Keller grinned and took my hand before running forward toward the battle scene.

~Keller~

"Fantastic!" I chimed in, joining Annabeth at what I believed to be her post. "I'm out for, I dunno, ten minutes, and you're listening to _Ash_?!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes, but she kept them trained on Nemesis. "This vampire is going to get himself killed. I figure we're doing everyone a favor by letting him attempt his own suicide. If he wants to do something crazy, then fine by me!"

I laughed pathetically, but the end of my mock laughter sounded like I was pretending to cry. "Ash won't die. Ash _doesn't_ die. That's just one of the awful things that makes Ash Redfern Ash Redfern. He would not just _die_."

Annabeth smiled slightly, a sideways smile that quirked every feature – from the corner of her mouth to her eye – on the left side of her face. "Then this should be somewhat entertaining," she put in.

"Iliana! Winnie!" Ash commanded. "More firepower!"

Winnie, straining from the aftershocks left over from Iliana's blue fire, scowled at the vampire. "We're doing as much as we can Ash!"

"I'd like to see you control this!" Iliana chimed in, in total consensus with Winnie. The blue fire was blasting all around the goddess – while it could destroy Night People and humans, it didn't seem to be doing much to harm the goddess other than giving her nasty-looking third-degree burns. "I can't control the level of this! And it's obviously not working!"

"Aim for her feet!" I ordered despite Ash's deadly glare. "Maybe you'll be able to get them hot and burnt enough that she falls to the ground!"

"Keller, that's crazy!" the vampire growled.

"I'm not the one that's on a suicide mission!" I retorted back calmly and evenly; just a hint of anger colored my voice. His eyes turned a bloodthirsty shade of crimson, but he let me continue to give my input on the situation. Turning back to Winnie and Iliana, I was impressed – by doing exactly what I'd mentioned, the goddess was jumping and dancing around on her feet, stumbling and swaying as if she was going to hit the ground at any second. "Fishboy! Goatboy!" I commanded, turning toward the Greek Freaks. "Use your weapons to get at her feet and knock her down!"

"C'mon, Perce!" Goatboy prompted his friend. However, the son of the sea god just kinda stood there. His eyes were still glazed over, and he didn't look like he'd be much help for us at this point. His hand that held his sword was almost weighed down by the weapon, and he looked at Annabeth and me with confusion written all over his face. "C'_mon_, Perce!" the satyr said more forcefully. He looked at his friend and dropped – yes, _dropped_ – his weapon onto the ground.

"Nemesis' magic has gotten to him too much," Annabeth said, the colors of fear painting her words. I could see the terror in the other girl's eyes as she stared at her boyfriend – I knew the look well, I'd stared at Galen with the same concern many times before.

"Galen!" I said quickly, and he leapt into the air, changing fully by the time he'd landed at the satyr's side. "Help Goatboy keep Nemesis down! I'll help Annabeth try to get her neck exposed so Ash can bite it!" He nodded his leopard head in understanding and turned to growl at the goddess. I watched intently as Goatboy and Galen charged forward, slashing at the goddess' feet as they combined the pain of a dagger and claws with the pain inflicted by the orange and blue fire of the witches. The goddess toppled to the ground, and the leopard and satyr did everything they could to keep Nemesis on the ground. Still in my half-and-half form, I rushed forward and twisted the goddess' hair around my arm and strong panther tail, making sure to knot and tangle my panther claws deep into the goddess' locks. Tugging on her hair, I did the best I could to hold Nemesis' head back to give Ash a clear shot at her throat. "Annabeth!" I very nearly screamed, sweat beading on my brow. "Come help me with this! I can't do this on my own!"

The other girl joined me within a matter of seconds, drawing her dagger and knotting it into Nemesis' hair as she yanked it back. The goddess of revenge grumbled something unintelligible – probably something in Greek, so it was literally Greek to me – as we yanked harder and harder on her hair.

"Ash!" I shrieked, my voice hitting a pitch I thought I was incapable of reaching. Sweat was dripping down my face and off my chin from the strain of my task, and my eyes were squeezed shut. "Ash, do it now!"

The vampire sprinted forward, springing onto the goddess' neck with the grace of the lanky blonde cat that he was. Compared to the massive size of the goddess, Ash's thin, lanky frame was pretty insignificant; he almost looked like a small bird perched on the shoulder of the goddess. When it came to his sharp tiny fangs, however, they were able to penetrate the skin of the goddess just as easily as they would any human. I watched him as he drank the blood of the revenge goddess, somewhat surprised at the golden hue of the blood that trickled down her tree trunk of a neck. He closed his eyes, and sank his fangs deeper into her neck – and a thought suddenly occurred to me.

"Nissa!" I yelled, and I could hear the double-tone that rang with the spoken word. I forced my eyes open and thrust my attention in the direction of Hecate and the Stats nerds, where Nikki was experiencing a light bulb similar to mine. I locked eyes with her, and a moment of silent communication passed between us. She spun around to target the other AP Stats nerds, and I saw her using her hands to motion what they needed to do. Leaving the protection of the goddess of the witches, they rushed over to where Nissa lay – still unconscious. As a team – yes, it took all four of them to lift the vampire girl – the Stats nerds dragged Nissa over to Nemesis; once there, Nikki nudged Ash with her elbow to get his attention.

"What?" Ash questioned viciously, tearing his teeth from the neck of the goddess. Strangely enough, the goddess cried out in pain. "This is making me stronger! It's the sweetest, warmest, most life-filled blood I've ever consumed – I _have_ to have more!"

"Nissa needs it to heal her!" Drea commanded, forcing the girl vampire at the boy. "If she doesn't, we have one less person to fight on our side!"

"We can't lose a daughter of Ares!" Annabeth cried out, the muscles in her arm bulging as she yanked back her dagger with the hair of the goddess tangled around it. "Ares is the big man – the big _war_ man! Please, Ash – I don't want to die today!"

I watched the vampire's eyes turned to a dark, dull shade of almost army green as he groaned in exasperation. "Fine," he sighed angrily, helping them hoist Nissa onto the goddess' neck. As a completely unconscious reaction, the presence of blood automatically caused Nissa's fangs to grow and appear to prick her bottom lip. Adjusting her so that her fangs were embedded into the goddess' skin, Ash, the Stats nerds, and the rest of us watched as Nissa's eyelids fluttered and she regained consciousness. Sinking her fangs deeper into the goddess' skin (as Ash had done), Nissa drank the golden god blood to restore her full strength. The goddess growled like an animal and thrashed around, attempting to throw her captors away from her – but we held our ground.

"Keller!" Nissa suddenly barked at me, and I saw that she was completely back to her strong, tough self. "Finish her off!"

"Nissa, you know you can't kill a god!" Annabeth yelled, still straining to pull the goddess' hair back. "You can only cause them to flee!"

~Nikki~

I'd been listening and observing the entire fight for more than a few reasons: one, these were some of my favorite characters and ships of ALL TIME from some of my favorite books of ALL TIME; two, my brain thought in Greek allusions when it came to English class, so I was thinking of something we could do to hinder Nemesis, cause her to flee. Give her the golden touch of King Midas . . . no. She was trying to _kill_ a satyr – not _save_ one! Do what Kronos had done to his father Ouranos? Closer to a better option, but no – Nemesis was a god_dess_. Kronos . . . Kronos . . . Kronos. Realization suddenly dawned on me, and I thought of what I had learned from reading The Last Olympian book series. We had to do what Zeus and Percy's father and Hades had done to their dad . . .

. . . We needed to chop Nemesis up into a bunch of little pieces and scatter them in Tartarus in the depths of the Underworld! _Ha, easier said than done_, the voice that served as my idiocy detector murmured in the back of my head. However, it may work . . . the Night People and the demigods were working together – they were actually working together to get rid of the goddess.

"Pull a Kronos!" I yelled. With the look Keller shot at me, you would've guessed that I was stupid. In fact, the same look was mirrored in the eyes of Perry and Gage. Drea looked at me like she had an idea of what I meant, but I didn't feel totally understood until I met the eyes of Percy. He'd tilted his head up from looking at the ground, and his eyes had lost their glazed-over appearance. In one swift, fluid motion, he threw Riptide into the air and caught it before rushing over to the goddess.

"Do you think it would work?" he asked me quickly, readying his sword to start slicing Nemesis.

"It worked with your dad and your grandfather!" I said in rushed, excited tones. "We have an entire army of demigods and Night People! It should work!"

Realization seemed to dawn on Annabeth and Grover, and they looked at each other in recognition and confusion. A moment of silent conversation seemed to pass between the two of them, and I caught a couple of bits of dialogue: ". . . can we really?" "I don't know . . . Kronos . . . gods . . . we're not that powerful!" ". . . but what if . . .?" "It works?" "I don't know . . ."

"I get it!" Galen vocalized, turning into his halfway form. "When the gods got rid of the Titans and replaced them as the ruling class – mainly Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades – they had to overthrow their father! They cut him up into a bunch of little pieces and scattered the pieces throughout Tartarus in the Underworld! We could totally do this!"

I looked at the faces of all my favorite book characters that surrounded us. These were some of the most powerful characters in any book I'd ever read (excluding, of course, the Shadowhunters in the Mortal Instruments book series), and I knew that, if anyone from any book series had the option to do this, it would be these guys that would succeed.

"GO!" Percy bellowed. Charging forward, I heard him yell Tyson's battle cry of "Peanut Butter!" as he brought down Riptide, slicing off the goddess' hand.

"No," Nemesis hissed in fear as the golden ichor flowed freely from the wound. She attempted to summon her hand back to her, in order for it to reattach, but Grover was one step ahead of her – rushing forward, he snatched up the goddess' massive hand and tossed it over the side of the battle arena and down through the clouds. "NO!" the goddess of revenge very nearly screamed.

Watching the fictional – er, I _thought_ they were fictional – heroes tear apart the goddess of revenge, I instantly thought of the scene in _Twilight_ when the Cullens tore the vampire James apart and then burnt all the pieces. Bits and scraps of her chestnut hair were tossed and thrown into the air, and we all did our best to pull the pieces far away from each other to make it more difficult for the goddess to reform.

"She won't stay like this forever, though," Percy spoke up after the last piece of Nemesis was thrown into the clouds. "She'll eventually regenerate – just like Kronos."

"But she's taken care of for now," Grover assured the group, hugging Winnie tightly despite the fact that her orange fire still tickled the tips of her fingers. I was still trying to fathom the awesomeness of this particular ship – Grover the satyr the soulmate of Winnie the witch. Oh, yes.

"Now we have to go back home," Drea said a little sadly. I shared her sadness, but I also knew that we would have the best story to share about our time away from school! No one would believe us, but the four of us would know. And this would definitely be an experience that we would never – ever – forget.

~Annabeth~

"Can you get us back to the actual Excalibur?" I asked Hecate. Since Nemesis had been tossed over the battle arena in at least a million little pieces, Percy would not leave my side. He would not let go of my hand – almost as if he was afraid that I would follow the pieces of the goddess of revenge down through the clouds.

Hecate smiled. "Both my domains have done great things for me – the domain of the demigods, and the domain of the Night People alike. I can do more than get you to the actual Excalibur."

I glanced back at the AP Stats students, knowing what the goddess of witchcraft was talking about, and then turned back to her with a confused glance. "But they, they can't . . ."

The goddess continued to smile, and her eyes took on a bubblegum pink hue that contrasted interestingly with her dark hair. "They can see through the Mist. They have my guidance and permission to enter the camp, as do the Circle Daybreak members. Though, Iliana and Nissa don't need my approval – they are already welcome!"

I returned Hecate's smile and grouped everyone together. I glanced at the faces of my friends – old and new – and thought of everything we'd been through together. Galen had his arm draped across Keller's shoulders, and Keller was actually smiling slightly. Grover and Winnie were holding hands – of course – and I contemplated how this would work with Grover having to stay at Camp Half-Blood and Winnie having to travel everywhere to help with Night World duties. The Stats students . . . they were some pretty decent mortals. Then, of course, there were Nissa, Iliana, and Hecate; these three stood clumped together in our little group. I'd known Nissa pretty much forever, and I knew that the vampire/daughter of Ares and I would remain friends for a long time to come. Whatever Winnie called Grover and Galen called Keller – soulmates, or something – I hoped that Nissa found hers. She seemed sad and lonely – she needed someone to lean on, to depend on. I wished the best for all my new friends.

"Let's go home," I said somewhat softly, smiling and squeezing Percy's hand. Upon hearing my words, Hecate smiled. With one wave of the goddess' hand and a final glimpse at her now light lavender eyes, a veil of the Mist surrounded us to transport us back home.

**Hey, everyone! **

**We are finally drawing to a close on this story . . . Nemesis is defeated, and now they're all going back to the camp. **

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	19. Bittersweet Reunion

Chapter 19:

Bittersweet Reunion

~Nissa~

When I heard Annabeth say that we were going "home," I knew exactly what that meant – and the odds were not looking good for me. I hadn't stepped foot into the Camp since before the quest with Annabeth, Thalia, and Luke. Therefore, when the Mist that Hecate produced shrouded us all to transport us back to the Camp, I shut my eyes tight. In all honesty, I'd missed the Camp all those years that I'd been away from it – even if I never fully remembered what exactly it was that I was missing. What would Luke say when he saw me? Thalia? I wanted to turn back, to have Hecate take me back to the Excalibur instead.

But now . . .

"Hey, Chiron!" I heard Annabeth say happily, and that little voice in the back of my head whispered the words _the centaur_. With the words, an avalanche of images flooded my head: Chiron, the centaur, greeting me when I arrived at Camp Half-Blood; the centaur – and Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia – at my first campfire, where Ares first claimed me as his daughter; Chiron, taking Luke, Annabeth, Thalia and me to the Oracle to figure out the next quest we would go on; the Oracle giving the prophecy that the "child of war" would be the first to die; Annabeth and I exchanging worried glances, wondering which of us it would be; then, the worst image of them all – the sight of my faltering vision as Annabeth and Thalia cried over my lifeless body, Luke doing everything he could to lead the other two away. "Hopeless cause," I heard Luke's voice echo in my mind. A single tear escaped my closed eyes and trickled down my cheek, and I willed my eyes to stay shut even as I felt the veil of Mist dissolve away.

"Hecate," I heard the centaur say, and I realized that the goddess of the witches had travelled to Camp with us. "Why are there so many extras? It seems to me that only five of these children belong under my domain."

"The humans can see through the Mist, and they have my permission to pass into Camp," I heard the goddess say, and I could almost picture her gesturing to the stats nerds. "The other six – yes, I include two of the demigods – are Children of the Night. Two are vampires, two are witches, and the remaining two are shape-shifters. Two of them, yes, do belong under your domain – however, all six of them belong under my domain. Therefore, they can pass into Camp Half-Blood with the ease of any demigod."

Everything was silent for a minute, and I imagined that Chiron was looking over everyone standing before him. I felt the weight of his stare land on me, and I heard the centaur gasp. Sighing heavily and wiping a tear from my eye, I resolved to open my eyes to face him full-on. The centaur looked just as I'd last seen him, only his hair and beard looking slightly different, as they had grown out a bit. His eyes were wide as they took me in – me, the child of Ares that died before her last quest was complete. His mouth was slightly open – the closest to agape that Chiron would get. Seeming at a loss for words, he pointed in my direction and turned his confused expression towards Hecate. I followed his gaze, but the goddess of witchcraft was looking at me.

"Heh, hey, Chiron," I forced out nervously. "Yep, it's me – Nissa Johnson. Daughter of Ares. Long time, no see, eh?" I was surprised at how weak and uncharacteristic my voice sounded . . . I mean, I was supposed to be calm and level-headed, only freaking out during a tough battle when it was needed. When Chiron continued to stare at me in bewilderment, I groaned and rolled my eyes. Regaining a bit of my calm composure back, I resolved to explain. "That quest I went on, with Annabeth and Luke and Thalia – we were attacked by a vampire." Annabeth gasped, but I waved her off with a steady hand. "It attacked me, and I underestimated its strength – I couldn't fight back. It exchanged blood with me, and I died. When I was fully conscious again, I was a vampire. I found out about the Night World, joined Keller's team, and . . . well, here I am."

The centaur still looked slightly baffled, but he seemed to be getting back to normal. "And who is the other demigod?"

No one spoke up for a moment, and I realized that Chiron's question was directed at me. "Oh!" I pulled Iliana out for Chiron to see, and she stood there – confused out of her brains – as she looked at the centaur. _Gods, girl_, I thought, rolling my eyes at the Witch Child's stupidity. _You make blue fire come out of your hands. You took on the power of your mother – freakin' _Hecate_, the goddess of the witches. You destroyed the last dragon 'shifter in existence – even _after_ he actually turned into a dragon – with said power and blue fire. You've fought an Echidna and evil spirits . . . and you mean to tell me that you're freaking out over a guy that has the ass of a horse? I swear_ . . . "This is Iliana," I began aloud. "She's – gods, what isn't she? – she's a Night World Wild Power, she's the Witch Child, she's a direct daughter of Hecate, she's a bit daft, probably more air-headed . . ." I would've continued on my rant, but Iliana actually sprang to life and elbowed me to make me shut up.

Chiron seemed to be pondering something, and he looked to Hecate once again. "Goddess, these two are under both of our jurisdictions. They seem to have missions that would obligate them to stick to one side, however . . ." The centaur trailed off, trying to find the best possible way to say what I knew was tickling the tip of his tongue.

Predictably, Ash could practically read my mind; he stepped forward and addressed Chiron directly. "Protection. Really? 'Oh, they need to be protected. Oh, this. Oh, that.' Are you _kidding_ me? I hardly think these two need protection!" At this, the cat of a vampire gestured to Percy and Annabeth. "Look what they have done. Hell, look what _we_ have done! Look what we have done without the constant protection of someone linked to Hecate! No one here needs protection – not even these human AP Stats geeks. So, here – let's make this easier. We'll give you these three, and we'll leave!"

I knew, however, that that wouldn't be the end of it.

"Ash, shut up," Keller and Annabeth said in unison. While they looked at each other in confusion that they had agreed on something, I stepped forward and suggested an alternate plan – even though I knew it would be a bit difficult for me.

"Well, why can't we see the camp? I mean, it's been forever since I've last been here. I'd like to see how everyone is."

Chiron nodded understandingly before stepping aside and gesturing us forward.

The camp looked the same to me now as it had the last day I had spent in it: demigods running here and there, people sparring on the grounds, satyrs rushing about and joining the melee of people scurrying around Camp.

"Where're Luke and Thalia?" I suddenly blurted out, covering my mouth after the words had already escaped.

I looked back at Chiron, Annabeth, Percy, and Grover to see them all wearing expressions of sadness and remorse. Despite my usually logical mind, I thought the worst. When Annabeth started crying and Percy opened his mouth to speak, I saw that my suspicions had been correct. "Luke . . . Luke died in the Titan War. For most of the battle, he was on the side of evil. Then, just when we thought Kronos had won, Luke . . . he took Kronos' spirit into his own body – the body of a mortal – and killed the Titan, once and for all."

From the first words Percy had spoken, I'd begun to tear up. Luke . . . brave, strong Luke . . . how could this have happened? I didn't want to believe it – I wanted Luke to come out of the Hermes cabin running and laughing, just like before I'd been killed. But, as I watched the door to the cabin of the god of thieves, Luke did not emerge. He didn't come running up to grab me in a bear hug, laughing in sheer elation; Luke was gone. The reality was tough, but I had to face it. "Wh-what about Thalia?" I asked somewhat quietly, a few tears still escaping my eyes. "She didn't die, too, did she?"

"No," Annabeth sniffled, but I could hear a dark undertone in the voice of the daughter of Athena. "Thalia met a worse fate."

Looking Annabeth straight in the eyes, I took a minute to shut mine and groan in exhasperation. "Oh, no. You don't mean . . ."

"Hunters! This way!" a new voice interrupted me. The voice . . . the familiarty of that voice stopped me dead. _No_, I thought to myself, very nearly pleading that this wasn't true. _No, no, no! Please, Thalia, please don't be_ . . .

"Hello, Thalia," Chiron's voice cut through my train of thought. "I see the Hunters of Artemis have stopped by for a visit. What brings you to Camp?"

"We felt we needed to come here for a bit," another one of the Hunters interjected. "Our goddess gave us a message that it would be beneficial to pay a visit to our old home. She didn't specify why – just that we should come."

Percy smiled smugly, and I knew that I was going to be given away. "Oh, I think I might know why."

The Hunter that had spoken just glared at Percy before turning her attention back to the centaur. "Chiron, I'm sorry, but _these_ don't look like guests. This just looks like the bunch you usually have." The Hunter turned her attention to Ash and eyed him suspiciously before continuing. "I _especially_ don't like the looks of that one."

"What about this one?" the first voice broke in. I did my best to keep my full face hidden from the Hunter, but I – apparently – wasn't doing a good enough job. "This one looks kinda familiar. She almost looks like . . ." I heard Thalia sharply draw in a breath, and I resolved to look up and meet my old friend in the eyes. She looked exactly as she had when I'd last seen her: electric blue eyes, short and shaggy black hair. I wondered if I still looked the same from the last time she'd seen me. I must have – or, at least, close enough to it – because her face paled, and she turned as white as a ghost. "N-N-Nissa? Nissa Johnson? But – I thought . . ."

"You thought she died. Yes, yes, we _know_. Can we _please_ go back to Vegas? Thierry and Hannah are still waiting for us to come back to have the next Daybreak meeting," Ash groaned, and I saw the Hunters of Artemis all shoot Ash a death glare.

"You just want to go back so badly because Mary-Lynnette is supposed to be there this time," Keller whispered silkily and snidely under her breath. Because I'd heard her comment, I knew Ash could, too – I kept my eyes trained on him, awaiting his glare or comeback. To my shock and surprise, no reaction of either nature came.

"What's the rush?" Grover cut in, smiling as he held Winnie's hand. "Nissa Johnson is back! I'm sure there's other people that want to welcome her!"

I had been dealing with Grover for a while now – I had dealt with him before I was turned into a vampire, and I had been dealing with him since the beginning of this quest. I knew that he had the potential to be obnoxiously perky and annoyingly happy, but I'd dealt with it for too long – this satyr was _really_ starting to get on my nerves! I didn't want to go see everyone else in the Camp – I'd already cried upon the sights of Annabeth, Chiron, and Thalia, and when Luke had been mentioned. I did _not_ want to see anyone else from my past at the Camp.

Annabeth noticed this, and she came over and put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, Nissa. Most of the Camp is relatively new since the war against Gaea. Most of the campers you knew were killed in one of the two wars that have gone on since you've been – well, never mind. But there're tons of fresh faces that'd be willing to meet you!"

I thought of one girl that I had barely known from the Ares cabin, and I thought about asking Annabeth if she was still there. I remembered that her name started with a C, but that was about all I could recall of my once cabin mate. I was afraid that if I mentioned her, they might give me the same solemn expression I'd received upon asking about Luke. I guessed Silena Beauregard and Beckendorf had met a similar fate, as I hadn't seen either of them come out of their cabins like they always used to. _Silena_, that voice of recognition whispered in my mind. I tried to think of why the name of the possibly deceased Aphrodite cabin counselor was so significant, but then the face of the girl I'd been trying so hard to recall came to my mind. C-Clar-Clarisse. Clarisse La Rue – that was her name. "What about Clarisse?" I resolved to question.

"What do you want?" I heard the girl bellow from somewhere out in the camp. I wouldn't have recognized the voice if the girl that was marching toward Chiron didn't look the least bit like my old cabin mate. Her hair was a bit shorter, and she was a bit more muscular than she had been when I had been at camp, but her face was one that I could distinguish out of thousands of people. "Chiron, why'd you call me? I was sparring with Chris" – I absently noticed the scratch on her arm where this guy Chris had no doubt sliced her – "and heard my name."

"She has better hearing than a vampire," Ash muttered under his breath, earning a choked chuckle from me.

Clarisse heard this, and she sneered the famous Ares sneer that she and I were famous for in Ash's direction. "Can it, Cottonball! I didn't ask for commentary from the peanut gallery."

Percy stifled a laugh. "Clarisse, _Chiron_ didn't. She did." Throwing me under the bus, Percy gestured in my direction. I didn't have time to shoot my sneer his way, because Clarisse was suddenly right up in my face, her nostrils flared.

"Who're you?" she asked accusingly. "And how do you know me?" She gave me the once-over twice, and then she cocked an eyebrow. "And why do you look so familiar?"

I brought my staredown face on and looked Clarisse dead in the face – well, as close to dead in the face as I could get with her towering at least a foot over me in height. "You didn't talk quite so much back when I knew you. Now it's like no one can get you to shut up."

It didn't seem like she was getting it, so I just stood there – staring her down. I hoped that she saw some sort of something in my eyes that would bring her to recognition, and I prayed that she'd find it soon – blood was trickling out of the wound on her arm, and I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold out without my eyes going all animal and my teeth going all vampire. As I watched, though, her eyes grew wide, and I could almost see the recognition hit her like a pile driver. "Nissa. Nissa Johnson. The one that everyone said died. No. Way."

"Yes, yes, it's Nissa. Can we leave now?" Ash asked, growing more impatient with each passing second.

**Hello, lovely followers! **

**Again, this chapter comes back from another long hiatus – I'm trying not to make a habit of it, but senior year in high school is kicking my butt. I know it's awful to end the chapter on Ash speaking, but my writer's block is getting the best of me – and I have a congressional testimony to rehearse. ***_**Sigh.**_*** I'm still in love with this story, though, so I'm doing my best to get this back to you – the lovely audience! **

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